I have always believed God gave us a gift we seem to feel so guilty about accepting. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, it's a "nap". I've always been a great believer in naps. If you ask my children about their major complaint from their early childhood, it would have some spin on having to take naps.
I came by this honestly. I remember as a teenager getting so mad at my mom because on Saturday she preferred to clean the house and then take a nap on the couch, instead of doing more important things like taking me to the mall shopping! My grandmother lived with us, and she believed only lazy or sick people ever get back in bed after making it up first thing in the morning. But she would watch her soaps (she called her "stories") and sit in her rocker dozing the whole time. Then later she would wake up and ask what happened, and I'd give her the recap. She'd always say, "I guess I dozed off there for a few minutes" (which was more like an hour).
I'm one of these people who likes to get up early. Then I want to go straight from the bed to the recliner and have my Diet Rite, and not talk to anyone for awhile. Don't even think of asking me about breakfast at that point. The thought of eating when I first wake up makes me want to barf. About an hour later, I'm ready to get up and "get things done." This usually involves showering and dressing, straightening up the house, and running errands. Around eleven, I'm hungry. So it's time to eat. Around one, I'm starting to nod off, and if I get the opportunity, the only place I want to be is back in bed, for an hour, or maybe an hour and a half. I sleep like a mummy during that time. (If someone wakes me, I'm like a zombie for hours.) After that, I'm ready to cook dinner, and then spend the evening watching tv or reading until late.
Of course, when I was working, this schedule was hard. I would compensate by working at adrenaline speed during the morning, then going to lunch and arranging a slower pace for the afternoon. It was very hard to stay awake during that time, much less accomplish anything fast paced.
I read a poll in a woman's magazine where most women said the one thing they wished they had more of in their lives was SLEEP. I agree. My idea of a good vacation is lying around and sleeping whenever I want. Eat, sleep, stare at the view, watch the ocean waves roll in and out, or watch the birds hop around in the forest. I've said before my favorite part of the cruise we took last fall, was the bed. Best bed I've ever slept in.
Naps are the perfect time to get that alone time, to go to bed alone and not have anyone wiggle or hog the covers, to think about anything you like until you go to sleep, to curl up under the covers when the house seems cold, to experience the quietness and stillness. I was given an assignment by a therapist once to cut out pictures of things I liked from magazines. Most of my pictures involved scenic views or comfortable looking beds.
Why do we feel guilty about such a wonderful thing? My sister used to jump up and straighten the bed when she heard her husband come home early, because she would have died if he caught her napping. I did the same thing in my first marriage.
I did the exercise that I mentioned in the last blog entry, (about what is the one thing you wouldn't want to be called, and then embrace that part of yourself), and mine was lazy and stupid. The truth is, I hate for someone to listen to me and then think I don't know what I am talking about. And I don't want to be thought of as lazy, so maybe that's where the shame from napping comes from. However, I've decided to spend the last part of my life saying I love napping, and other people can deal with it!
Here is my favorite quote this week. It's an excerpt from Tom Hodgkinson's How to Be Idle
"I count it as an absolute certainty that in paradise, everyone naps. A nap is a perfect pleasure and it's useful, too. It splits the day into two halves, making each half more manageable and enjoyable. How much easier it is to work in the morning if we know we have a nap to look forward to after lunch; and how much more pleasant the late afternoon and evening become after a little sleep. If you know there is a nap to come later in the day, then you can banish forever that terrible sense of doom one feels at 9 A.M. with eight hours of straight toil ahead. Not only that, but the nap can offer a glimpse into a twilight nether world where gods play and dreams happen."
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