Nap Time

I just woke from one of those after dinner naps.  You know the kind.  The food has just begun to settle nicely inside your stomach and suddenly your brain no longer wants to function.  I always eat reclining, Roman style, so you don't have to guess what ended up happening.  Only now two hours later have I just washed the dishes.  I could not move.  I could glance out the window at the beautiful play of early evening light in the sky and the clouds but to move even voluntarily out of this beautiful delirium, I don't think so.

As I have become older I am appreciating more the importance of rest.  It used to be an accessory: you know: run around looking busy and get all excited and stupid (coffee helps), do many things badly (called multitasking), cram as much into the short day as you can and even try to tick off as many boxes as possible on your "Before I Die" life list, then brag about it to everyone.  "And you only need three hours sleep every night?" they ask in amazement and you wonder what the next lie is going to be.

This is just what makes us unhealthy and makes us age badly.  It doesn't matter how much running or yoga or meditation you are doing, how many cleansing regimens you pound your body with, how much you keep telling yourself and everyone what a great time you are having (Affirmations), even if you are a non-smoker, moderate drinker, eat only organic, and practice safe sex, tantric even, or no sex at all, you are not going to live very long and not all the plastic surgeons in Vancouver, LA or Bogota Colombia will keep you young or beautiful and alive forever.  You are slowly killing yourself.

It is unfortunate and ironic that we don't tend to see this until it's too late and the damage is already done.  We have learned the long hard way, our asses have been nicely kicked and now at around fifty or so or older we know when it's nap time and to hear is to obey.

Rest has become my centre, my fulcrum.  It has to be.  If I wake up too early in the morning, even if I do get up, I will soon go down again and sleep till it's time to go to work.  If I can hardly move before or after dinner or on a Sunday or Saturday afternoon or whenever, I stay where I am and sink blissfully into the kingdom of Oblivion.

I still get everything done.  I work almost full time, I paint, write this blog, I am reading four books at once, all in Spanish, I take long walks, minimum five miles a day, participate in a weekly Spanish conversation group and still have time for my friends and for church every Sunday.  I am also taking a university course online in Spanish, gender studies, for free, courtesy of the Autonomous University of Barcelona.  I also eat well, vegetarian, wholesome and tasty food prepared from scratch.  And I even keep my place clean, without hired help (which I couldn't afford even if I wanted it.)

I get everything done.  On time or early.  And I get lots of rest.  Or perhaps I should say that I can do all this because I get lots of rest.