"Tension is who you think you should be.  Relaxation is who you are. " ~Chinese Proverb
 It is amazing how busy and stressed out I can become. I think of the toll that gravity takes on the body and imagine that an unnatural amount of stress does the same thing to the mind and the spirit. Stress sneaks up on me, piling on slowly day after day until I find myself under it and feel like I'm holding the weight of the world.
 I have two ways to let it all go. Two great ways to de-stress and let go of all of the things that I make myself believe are direly important. I swim and I worship.
 When I jump into the pool, the water greets me. I like to dive in from the end, hands in front of me and swim to the middle of the pool. One simple dive washes the stress away, starting from my fingertips and working down to my toes. I stay in the middle of the pool and float, looking up at the sky with my ears under the water. The peace is incredible. The feeling of having water buoy my body, of holding me up makes the weight of the world fall away. I don't have to hold even my own weight, I can just float and stare and be silent. That is when I am completely relaxed.
 When I worship, attending church, or spending quiet time to meditate and pray, I feel the same sort of feeling. Yesterday at church the choir and the music and the praise washed over me much like the water in the pool does. The music from the alter started and carried me away. This is the beauty of Sunday. I can make myself rest, and make myself relax and put down the weight of all that I feel I have to do.
 A funny thing happens when I let it all go. I realize that I've been carrying things that don't need to be picked back up. Those things that aren't important but weigh me down, I leave them by the poolside, or at the alter, and I find myself walking a lot lighter and a lot more balanced. That is the beauty of a Sunday.