Do You Ever Rest?

Last week, several friends asked me, "do you ever rest?" Sure! 61:40 hours each week!

61:40 hours? How do you figure? How do you know this so precisely? You work full time, you do repairs and go grocery shopping for elderly people, you take care of your house and yard, do some consulting, attend a bunch of meetings as a civic leader, mentor some people, take care of your aunt, prepare home-cooked meals, keep blogging, update your websites... how do you have that much time to rest?

Well....

Friday night after I get home from the regular family dinner, my partner and I turn off the TV and the computer, put some music on the CD player or turn on the piano (it plays itself), and then we just sit back, hold each other, and relax. This practice of "Friday night snuggle night" has been a regular for us for years, and one we both cherish.

Weekend mornings as dawn breaks, we get closer, and I may rest my head on my partner's chest. Listening to his heartbeat and his soft breathing is very relaxing to me. He may scratch my back, and snuggle tighter. Touch is a very important element to our togetherness. We will rest together that way for about an hour before rising to get the day going.

I'm also a believer in "power naps." For about 20 minutes each day on my subway ride home from downtown DC to my stop out in the 'burbs, I zonk out. So there's a whole 1:40 extra minutes of sleep. Damn, I'm a bum!

I sleep about eight hours each night. Eight hours??? Yup. My body demands it. With as much running around as I do, when it comes time to go to bed, I crash. As soon as my head hits the pillow, I'm out like a light.

Despite all the demands on my time, I am in bed by 8:30, or 9 at the latest. Even if I have to leave a meeting early, angering some as I do that. Tough. I know what my body needs and what I require in order to function day-to-day. Eight hours of sleep, each night. Period.

Well then, doing the math, 7 days x 8 hours = 56... add 1:40 of power nap time... the rest is snuggle time with the man I love. 61:40 hours is a lot of rest time. Heck, that's 36.7% of my entire week! And if I'm really lucky, we'll even hang in the hammock in our back yard park for a couple hours on a nice weekend afternoon. More rest, relaxation, and closeness. I'm wasting time with all this rest! I'm so lazy!

Life is short: keep it balanced.