Tag: rest

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.