Tag: rest

Foundations to Mountains

“Firm up your foundations, and then you can return to moving mountains in the outer world.” -Daily Horoscope

The line above is from my horoscope today. I believe that this line is not just meant for today, but it is an allegory for my life (and probably anyone else’s life). Right now, as we are renovating our kitchen and I am getting needed minor health appointments taken care of, and my family and I are all back to our regular places and our regular schedules, I am “firming up my foundations.” In the earlier part of this year, mixed with a lot of travel, celebrations, reunions, revelations etc. I was moving the mountains, and exploring different horizons, going through “the peaks and valleys” that always come with major endings and beginnings and new adventures. What I love about this constant, reliable cycle in life is how appreciative you are, when the mountain climbing gets exhausting and taxing and you just crave “home” and “comfort” and “routine” and “rest” to crawl into and hole up in. You find yourself basking in your foundations for a little while until you feel centered and aligned and you have taken the time to process everything which you have experienced, and you have integrated all of this into the person who you are, and then you feel healthy and energized and a little antsy and a little curious and a little inspired and then you are ready to excitedly return to the foot of the next mountain which you are eager to explore. Foundations to mountains and back again. It’s a merry-go-round that I like to ride.

“Just like the seasons, life is a continuous cycle of birth, growth, decay, and renewal. Each stage is essential and leads to the next, creating a beautiful and interconnected journey”. – Cess

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Monday – Funday

Credit: @Titsay, Twitter

Summer slows things down, in a different way than winter does. Summer comes after Spring, a season of rapid growth and change, and so Summer turns up the heat, in order to slow things down. It says, let’s take a pause and let’s just bask and simmer in everything that spring has brought forth. Let’s shine the light bright on everything that has come forth, and let’s just watch it all beautifully burst at the busting seams. Let it all just sparkle and explode and rejoice. Winter is an introverted, reticent, quiet, slow season. Summer is an easygoing, yet extroverted, leisurely, lulling slow season. Spring and Fall are the moments of movement and rapid change in our lives. Summer and Winter tell us to slow it all down and just be.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Better Late Than Never

“So, in an age of acceleration, nothing can be more exhilarating than going slow. And in an age of distraction, noting is so luxurious as paying attention. And in an age of constant movement, nothing is so urgent as sitting still.” – Pico Lyer

I know that I may have some long-time, loyal, everyday readers, who might be a little bit concerned about me right now. I understand. I pride myself on consistency. I am late writing this post because my host server, Bluehost, was experiencing “Gateway” problems all morning. (don’t ask me what that means, I’m a writer and certainly not a technical one) And I can’t complain. I can count on one hand how many times Bluehost has caused me issues on being able to get on to my WordPress blog site to write my daily blog. In my experience, Bluehost has always been reliable and consistent. I can’t complain. Nothing and no one is completely without fault in this world. C‘est la vie!

So, in the meantime, I have been deliciously lounging outside by my pool, reading a wonderful book, while every 45 minutes or so, coming into the house to see if I could finally log on to say “hi.” I have been living Pico Lyer’s quote above, this morning, and it has been exhilarating and luxurious, and in my case, probably also “urgent.” I have been living more distracted and disconnected lately, than I usually like to go about living my life, and I have suffered some consequences for this lack of attention to the present. Perhaps, even Bluehost knew to force the issue, to make me take a pause.

I hope that you all didn’t go immediately to “the negative” in your minds wondering why I didn’t post. I only write this because unfortunately, this is something that I have the tendency to do. A good friend of mine took her elderly dog to the vet this week, and I didn’t hear back from her when I texted, asking how the appointment went. I’m ashamed to admit that I immediately envisioned the worst possible scenario, and I was already comforting/hugging her in my mind. Well, what really happened is that she changed her cell phone provider and her texts weren’t coming through. Her wonderful, longtime fur companion is just fine! And so am I.

Have a luxurious, exhilarating, urgent “sit still” with me today, if you can. It will do us all a world of good, which ultimately, makes for a good world.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Rest Rest Rest

“Burnout exits because we’ve made rest a reward rather than a right.” – The Last Mindbender

My friend sent this quote to our group chat. It was in response to another friend who has a high-powered job, on top of raising three teenaged daughters. This particular friend was saying that she wasn’t able to unwind on their family’s spring break vacation until almost five days into the trip, and only two days before they were to head back home. Sadly, we all could relate. This inability to rest and to let go, was an experience which was familiar to all of us.

It has also always annoyed me, that we feel the need to tell ourselves, and to tell others, that we “deserve”, or we have “earned” our vacations or our spa treatments or our naps. Why is rest a guilty pleasure? Why must we wait until we are in a sick or weakened state to allow ourselves to experience solid rest? Rest is imperative. Rest is restorative. Rest is renewal.

I am writing this blog post late on Monday evening. I will be leaving at 5:30 in the morning, for an all-day tennis competition, just like I did yesterday. I am exhausted. I spent all day out in the scorching Florida sun, doing all sorts of activities to support my daughter and her teammates. It was a memorable, successful day. I enjoyed it so much, and yet, as I write this, I am bone-tired. I feel physically, and mentally, and even a little emotionally, completely and totally drained. Tonight’s sleep will be the kind of sleep that only can be enjoyed when you are all worn out and weary. Sleep is fully appreciated when your body is all but begging you to find your way to your bed, and to your accommodating and welcoming, soft pillow. When you are this tired, you don’t worry about if you deserve this rest, or even if you have “a right” to this rest, you just let your utter exhausted state subjugate you to slumber, without a fight. It feels so good to yield and to surrender to the deeply needed, slumbered state.

Quotes about Resting the body (44 quotes)

Are you passing on love, or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.