Saturday, August 22, 2026
There are times you just don’t know how you’re going to make it. I have felt that “squeeze.” I can remember vividly the dark nights after my ex-husband left. It was nightmarish. I remember when my best friend was in the hospital, dying – he didn’t pull through. It was a lean time – hoping, wishing, and wanting, desperately.
I once received a letter from the IRS claiming I owed many thousands. That was tough. Another lean time, I remember biting my nails over whether I would be able to afford my medication after I quit my job and lost my health insurance.
In those lean times it feels like it’s just you. Your only strength and grounding is who you are. You feel you can’t breathe. You feel everything is going “wrong.” Those are lean times – wondering about tomorrow and how you can make it.
I don’t know why lean times happen. But that’s when we lean in. The only hope is calming down. Just breathe, acquiesce in quiescence. One breath at a time, life leans in, it seems. A lot of the difficulties come in triplicate. Don’t brace. Release. Breathe through.
In lean times lean in, get quiet, and find your breath and breadth. Your hope is your indwelling spirit, your solace and comfort. You comfort yourself in lean times. You live on your own, silent, daily bread. The breath. You are helpless. You can’t do anything. You are forced to let go. Work on making it voluntary.
Lean times require you to lean in. They help you focus on what matters, love. The money, the insurance, the taxes, the illnesses and even death–somehow that’s not love – that can be tossed in the end.
You’re squeezed through for one reason. To rely on love.
It’s the only true hope.
It’s the only thing that helps, yet is not helpless…
Love.