{Welcome to Just Write. This week, after you link up below, click on over to Momalom and link up there, too! We’re sharing words with 5 for 5 this week! The prompt is “Words” but if you didn’t get that memo, no worries. Your post surely has words in it, so it’ll work just fine. The link to 5 for 5 is at the end of this post.}
{WORDS}
On Sunday I got back into bed, overwhelmed and exhausted, my down comforter like a life raft. No TV, no book, no iPhone. No words. I was just thinking but not about much. Then I drifted off to sleep. I have no idea how long it’s been since I did something like that. Just calmly ignoring the loud sounds coming from the other rooms, coming in and out of consciousness. Peaceful. It’s been a really long time. It was the next thing on the to-list even if there was no list for a Sunday. it was just what I needed. I’m the kind of person that always feels like there’s a right or wrong thing to do. But my thinking wasn’t so full of questioning, of so many words and wonderings. It was like my brain surrendered and took my heart with it. Finally.
This thinking and napping thing wasn’t right or wrong, it just was. So much of life is like that, if we let it be like that.
Being a mom is the best and hardest thing and it will leave me shaking over which next step to take a million times. I need to treat more of these things that want to shake me like that Sunday restful moment. To just breathe and wait until something that’s just what I need happens all on its own.
Everything looked different when I woke up. More doable and less mountain-like. My insides were softer and so were my ways of responding to everyone around me. That’s the miraculous magic of a catnap on a cloudy melancholy kind of day. Stopping to keep going.
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This is the 32nd installment of Just Write, an exercise in free writing your ordinary and extraordinary moments. {Please see the details here.} I would love to read your freely written words so join me and link up below. You can add the url of your post at any time. Just be sure it’s a link to your Just Write post, not to your main page. Then please link back to this post in your post so people know where to go if they’d like to join in.) (Any links not following those two guidelines will be deleted.)
Also. Please take a moment to visit someone else who has linked up! It’s a really good way to meet new writers and get inspired by the meaning behind their moments. Word?
This week only: When you’re finished linking here, head on over to 5 for 5 at Momalom and link up there too! Click on the “today’s post” below and go meet some lovely people while joining in with the prompt: WORDS. (No worries if you didn’t know about the prompt and your post is done. Feel free to link up anyway because you’ve obviously used words in your post :)
{ 42 comments }
I strive for this kind of quiet.
(It’s hard for me to find sometimes. I’m working on it.)
Beautiful -wait for it- WORDS, as always, you!
Galit Breen recently posted..Walking Wishes
I love that last line–stopping to keep going. Slowing down is hard for me too but I remind myself that it’s so needed.
Rach (DonutsMama) recently posted..Metamorphosis
Oh I need this. I feel a certain peace just reading about it. From your words to my heart. xo
tracy@sellabitmum recently posted..My Best Friend
I was thinking about this very thing this morning when I woke up . How we had a pastor who used to say the natural precedes the spiritual. That sometimes we just need to sleep and eat well in order to hear Him well. So glad you had time for a true Sabbath. I know how restorative that can be.
Shelly Miller recently posted..When Life Hands You a Popsicle
Naps are truly underestimated. If we took more of them, therapists would likely be out of business : )
Dana@Bungalow’56 recently posted..Why You Need To Take A Family Vacation
i can’t remember the last time i experienced that kind of quiet, the kind where even though the kids are banging cabinet doors, you sleep through. such a good thing for a mama!!!
amanda {the habit of being} recently posted..words
Catnaps are magical. So very, very magical.
Agreed Stacia ! I even love laying in the sun if it is out. Just like my kitties do.
“Stopping to keep going.” That line will stick with me. Such an important thing to do and yet something so easy to forget.
Stopping to keep going. That is something I’m beginning to understand only now. Only for me, I have to close my bedroom door, turn on my sound spa to surf, and put in ear plugs. Then I lay on my life-raft-bed and just rest. :)
Naps put mountains into perspective.
Liv recently posted..captive audience
Oh, am I learning about how to rest… I didn’t realize I never really knew how to do it before, and I’ve never needed it more :-)
Blessings,
Stacy
P.S. I’m not sure if I’ve ever commented before but I’ve been reading along for a few months. Thank you for your words, and the Just Write series — I am linking up for the first time this week.
Stacy @ Sweet Sky recently posted..All these things arise
This is my first link up after reading too. I am glad it was on a topic that I had something to say. Although I am grateful that they would have taken anything this time. I like free writes, because they can inspire beyond their original intentions. What do you think?
My Guy often take catnaps every evening after the girls are in bed to power through the evening when he toils away into the dead of night on his computer. I understood his need but never really got it. Until I took a nap when everyone else did one Sunday afternoon.
When you said, “I’m the kind of person that always feels like there’s a right or wrong thing to do,” an alarm sounded in my head. That’s me too! So when I took that nap, it felt wrong at the moment but when I surrendered, I awoke just like you did – everything felt easier, more manageable.
“Stopping to keep going.” Love how you encapsulated all that in just four words. This should be my new mantra. Thank you!
Justine recently posted..Five for Five: I said yes!
I feel myself drowsing off now…. :)
Lovely, Heather. To be able to stop and just be, even for a nap, that’s wonderful.
Alison@Mama Wants This recently posted..The Second Time
That is what I have always loved about the biblical principle of the Sabbath.
To rest, restore and rejuvenate, so that we can be prepared for the the days ahead.
God is so smart. :)
I slept late on sunday and it felt so good. my day was so smooth and everything felt doable. Sleep is absolutely not overrated and don’t worry there are no wrong or right way to do it ;o)
Tim recognizes when I need a break like that sometimes and he will shoo me into the bedroom and I hear all the sounds of the busy household full of childhood but I do not have to deal with it for just a bit so yes, I rest. Amazing what just a little time like that can do for us!
Somedays the only thing you can do is go back to bed and then start all over. Been there.
The Mommy Psychologist recently posted..Should Your Toddler See Chimpanzee?
Sounds heavenly and much needed. Funny how something we probably all took for granted (sleeping when we wanted to sleep) is now such a luxury!
my friend and i have a term for this kind of living. we call it “living yourself into the answers”. we use it to mean that we can’t know the answers to our questions about the future, the next moment even, because maybe they don’t even exist until we live them. it is in the living – our gut in the moment – that things unravel. i took a nap this past sunday too. when i woke up i told myself husband “i didn’t know how much i needed it or if i could take it until i took it”.
adriana willey recently posted..Marriage Letters: I Trust You Because….
So glad you were able to get that little escape to recharge your batteries. I think our bodies tell us when we need it.
Thank you for putting together such an awesome place for me to come every Tuesday to work on my writing. I really appreciate having you as this kind-of a mentor, whether you know it or not. :)
Jennifer recently posted..The most important words
Those are the absolute best moments. I had one the other day when a friend dropped by. I stopped worrying about my schedule and just enjoyed the surprise visit. The laughter restored me as much as a catnap would.
Kelly recently posted..QOTD: The NFL
This is so full of magic and peace and the right thing. I have right and wrong in my head all the time, and it’s hard to breathe through it. Feels radical, doesn’t it?
Sharone recently posted..bounce
I have had a really hard time staying quiet lately. I always have something “on” the tv, the phone, the laptop. I needed to read this as much as I need a nap :).
Jessica recently posted..Both Eyes
I’m the kind of person that always feels like there’s a right or wrong thing to do.
Yep. Me too.
I am happy you got that nap. I always feel a bit ashamed about taking a nap–I am not sure why but I absolutely love them. For me, the absolute hardest part of the early motherhood years for me was the sleep deprivation. I never thought I would feel truly rested again. Promise yourself you will keep taking them.
I so relate to the “right thing/ wrong thing” dealio. I categorize it all and then assign humongous guilt to say, choosing to take a nap or finish a can’t-put-down book instead of unloading the dishwasher or folding laundry. I need to learn that just-let-it-go thing….the letting things just be…giving myself grace.
Love you, always.
this was me this afternoon, and all was better after rest. a lot a lot. grace for us, too:)
suzannah {so much shouting, so much laughter} recently posted..grace like legalism, peace like fighting well
I long for that inner softness, even when I can’t stop-to-keep-going. I want to be able to channel it any time! But that’s, you know. Hard. And I think striving for it isn’t likely to make it appear, somehow? Not that that stops me from trying… :)
Melissa recently posted..five for five: a day in the life, in words
I do this sometimes. Ignore what’s going on in the real world so I can escape and refind myself. It truly is amazing what a respite like that can do for us. At least for me. A nap. Alone. In the quiet. It’s sublime. I’ve missed you and so happy to be reading your words. xo
becca recently posted..Without Words
Hi Becca! I loved seeing you pop up! xoxo
That down-comforter-as-a-life-raft metaphor is perfect! LOVE!
charrette recently posted..Dispirited
Oh you have such a way with words, stopping to keep going. I love that, and don’t do it enough. Lovely.
Melissa recently posted..Words { Just Write 5for5}
Love that last line, Stopping to keep going. Definitely what is needed sometimes.
Smiling Like I Mean It recently posted..Words
Yep! that’s it totally!
Except when you wake up really hard and you feel sick to your stomach because you had needed that for so long but had been ignoring it and your body was so deprived.
Not that I’ve ever been there!
Gianna recently posted..Stories of Other Sweet Peas & Buddies (Mama Highlights)
Have to agree with pacing yourseld with a little rest.
Mary Hamptom recently posted..Skin Care Treatment
I have had to build in breaks for my day. I am not good at resting, and now I go to bed at midnight instead of 10 o’clock. When I sleep, I sleep well!
Just wanted to say that this is my first ever link up! I am excited and I hope I get some feedback from others on the list. Though, 90 people is impressive. I don’t know how many I can get to.
Susan Silver recently posted..The Meaning of Meaningless
Welcome, Susan! Thank you for joining in. :)
So nice when the body and mind cooperate like that.
nicole recently posted..Just Write: Words
I’m going to be stealing what you just said for the rest of my life.
That’s exactly it and you just put the words in the right order for me. My mind and body don’t like to cooperate very often, so yeah, it was GOOD. :)
Just wanted to leave a brief comment stating how beautiful your word are. Your writing is inspiring! Thanks!
Alecia @ Hoobing Family Adventures recently posted..Supermomdom
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