My husband forced me to relax twice this weekend.
It was hard.
But it was good.
See, I'm not a relaxer. I'm a do-er. Meaning, I work full-time all week and then I manage to turn my weekend into full-time work at home. (Although, I believe most women often do that.) Music Man, however, sees how it stresses me out and wears me down before I even attempt to let my heavy lashes pull me under.
On Saturday, we napped at about 5:30 in the evening. Now, I figured if I took a nap then, there was no way I would sleep later that night. But he convinced me to lay down anyway because he knew I was tired. So that's just what we did. We talked and napped on and off until about 7 o'clock. We just lay there. Plain and simple, spending time together.
And then this morning I don't have to be into work until later than normal, but I still woke up at 5 am. And boy was it getting ready to storm. I took JJ out quickly, fiddled around with the weather channel, and was about to write a little or do some yoga when Music Man woke up and asked what I was doing. I explained how I was killing time until I had to get ready and he said, "Lay back down. Relax. If there's one thing I learned from the army, it's to take advantage of sleeping in."
Now, again, I didn't want to lay back down and possibly fall asleep because I knew it would make me more tired for the day, but I did it anyway. We lay there and watched the lightening out our patio door. It was beautiful.
I often ask myself why it is exactly that I can't relax? Why can I not take a single moment to just breathe in and breathe out? I guess I often think that I have to keep going, to keep doing more because if I don't do the dishes now then I won't. Why is that mentality so ingrained in our society? I often kid about moving to Europe because they know how to relax. They know how to take a holiday.
But I never think that way about relaxing. How many peaceful moments have I missed because I did not stop to just breathe it in? How many naps have I missed with Music Man because I simply did not want to tear away from whatever I felt I had to be doing and instead missed a moment with him?
He has the art of relaxing down and he's trying to teach me, oh so patiently.
It's time I learn.
I once made a list of all the things I expected myself to accomplish in the average day. It was super human. No wonder I don't relax well...this is the bane (or one of the banes!) of woman kind I think.
ReplyDeleteI think that for many Christians, the command to honor a Sabbath rest is much harder than resisting the impulse to murder or bear false witness. When I was in college, my friends would sometimes carry me bodily out of the library in order to make me rest. I'm glad you have someone to helping you step outside of time, its work and burdens.
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