Tired

Tired - Exhausted of strength or energy; fatigued.

It's a word that encompasses many meanings.

There's the state of mental tiredness. This can occur after long hours of study. Maybe it happens because of hours, days, weeks or years spent working on a project or dealing with a problem.

There's also an emotional tiredness. Being emotionally exhausted occurs during hardships like deaths, break-ups and when strife rears its ugly head. This feeling of fatigue is usually connected to our interpersonal relationships.

Then there's the physical meaning of the word. Let's see how far we can go with this one.

Ask any pregnant woman what it means to be tired, and she'll likely tell you it carries a whole new meaning.

There's the perpetual feeling of being tired when you are in the throes of raising young children. It's an everyday kind of tired that leaves you in a stupor much of the time.

There's the tired one feels after an intense workout that leaves your body depleted.

Then there's the tired that comes along with having a late night. Maybe you stayed up too late watching TV, reading that novel or trying to express yourself with just the right word on your blog.

Maybe it was a late-night chat.

Sometimes that late night comes with a headache and remorse the next morning.

There's also a tired that comes with the seasons. Daylight saving time can throw you off for days.

Let's not forget the tired one feels from travel. There's the after the trip tired that makes you think you need a vacation to recover from the vacation you just took.

There's also the I'm not going to sleep on my flight and try to stay up the whole next day in Europe tired. This tired just might lead one to begin crying in the middle of the Louvre because a security guard wouldn't allow her to sit on the floor to rest her tired and weary body.

So you learn your lesson from that and then the next year you induce tired by taking a Benadryl on your flight to London. Only one because you don't want the groggy tired you'll have when you awake from taking two.

Then there's the husband that maybe didn't learn his lesson the year before, and he finds he's so tired he's about to vomit or pass out (maybe both) on a long, winding bus ride through the English countryside.

There are tired eyes when you've been behind the computer for too long, especially in the dark.

Then there's the pleasant feeling of tired. This one can come come on a breezy beach, rocking on the porch or on any given Sunday.

It would seem that the physical aspects of tired are endless. There's countless other scenarios not coming into play here.

There's also the state of being tired of something. It's not so much a feeling as a state of being.

First, there's the things one can be tired of, but knows there is little that can be done about them. For instance, being tired of the laundry or the need to continually wash dishes.

Next, there's being tired of in the sense of being fed up. Like being fed up with the way someone is acting or with the way you are being treated. Maybe it's the constant mess that has become your house.

Then there's the antithesis to tired of. It's the things one never gets tired of.

Like the feeling of God's providence.

Like kisses from your children.

Like knowing you are loved.