Rest! How can I rest...

Sumergete/Submerge Yourself/Handless Maiden by Wild Cherries, inspired by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

"Have you ever seen a woman work like the devil had hold of her big toe, only to suddenly collapse and go no further? Have you ever seen a woman hell's-a-popping about some social issue only to one day turn her back and say "Hell with it." Her animus has worn out...The woman whose idea or energy has waned, withered, or ceased altogether needs to know the way to this old [two-million-year-old] woman curandera, healer, and must carry the tired animus there for renewal...

Whatever their idea is for respite, even though they're speaking from abject tiredness and frustration, I say that is a good idea, it is time to rest. To which they usually screech, "Rest! How can I rest when the whole world is going to hell right before my very eyes?"

But in the end, a woman must rest now, rock now, regain her focus. She must become younger, recover her energy. She thinks she cannot, but she can, for the circle of women, be they mothers, students, artists, or activists, always closes to fill in for those who go on rest leave. A creative woman has to rest now and return to her intense work later. She has to go see the old woman in the forest, the revivifier, the Wild Woman in one of her many leitmotifs. Wild Woman expects that the animus will wear out on a regular basis. She is not shocked that he falls through her door. She is not shocked when we fall through the door. She is ready. She will not rush to us in a panic. She will just pick us up and hold us till we regain our power again.

~ from "Renewing the Creative Fire" by Clarissa Pinkola Estes, in Women who Run with the Wolves.