What makes you sigh?  If you’re like me a sigh can mean a lot of different things. Sometimes I sigh when I’m feeling blue.  Sometimes it’s a sigh related to stress; a way to relieve pressure.  Sometimes it’s a sigh of content.

 

Ever notice yourself sighing a lot?  I never really noticed my sighs until shortly after my dad died 4 years ago.  His decision to take his life stunned me; it was tragedy beyond description. I spent a lot of mental energy replaying conversations, scenes from family gatherings, in a desperate effort to make sense of it all.  It was during this season of deep sorrow that I noticed my sighing.

 

In the pursuit of distraction from my loss, I had the privilege of going to a friend’s to work with her horses.  There is truly some mystical healing connection that God allowed me to work through by grooming those animals.  I learned a lot about the habits of horses, the common and those unique to each horse.  Did you know that when a horse blows air through its mouth, bouncing its lips, they are relieving tension?  It was through working with the horses that I first made the connection to my new frequent sighing habit.  To sigh meant I was physically releasing stress that had accumulated within me.

 

Over time as God has worked deep healing in me I have sighed less and less from the stress of loss.  But I notice when I sigh now and it’s become a self-check mechanism: kind of a biofeedback tool for me to pay attention to what is going on within me.  That’s how I have learned that a sigh means different things for me.

 

So why title this post Saturday Sigh?  When the week has been full of work, comings and goings, and lots of appointments, a respite from our regular hoopla comes on the weekend.  Saturday brings a sigh of relief.  It’s a release of stress and a settling into a slower pace.  Today is a Saturday of white space on the calendar; no obligations, no commitments.  Yes there are things that need to be done but somehow when the clock is not the ruler of the day, there is an audible sigh of relief.

 

How about you?  What makes you sigh?