Rest is not something that’s done but something we aspire to do. Often it’s referred to “In peace”, when we’ve taken our last breath in the physical body our spirit inhabits. It is something that is individual and universal, for we all need to feel its rejuvenative effects. For all the longing we may feel to stop and smell the roses, bare our feet and ground ourselves into the ever moving earth or schedule such days to do nothing but…rest we more often than not do not.
Rest is often coupled with sleep but it is not sleep. It is the breath of air we can direct deep into every forgotten space in our being and the ability to know when to say no; not only when we are too full to accept even one more invitation to visit with a friend or attend the next concert which will allow for a different kind of rest for some but when we look at our selves in the mirror for just that extra moment and see everywhere that pausing our movement is necessary, even crucial. Rest is an act of self care but it is also, and perhaps just as importantly, an act of other care in that when we are truly rested we can be more present with what is happening inside as well as outside of us.
Resting does seem to be an impossible act or one that perhaps we need to do in isolation, lest we appear weak for needing a moment or two – maybe even more than that. The value that’s been placed on this kind of pausing has all but fallen by the wayside and this alone warrants all the more reason for picking it up, brushing it off and adopting it once more as a part of our daily regimen.
Rest allows for us to experience our senses fully, this is where it differs from sleep. When there is nothing to do, nowhere to be, no one to talk with and just what surrounds us we can settle into our being to let unfurl whatever it is we are carrying that ignites in us the desire to rest. To rest while remaining awake is to give space and time for processing the experiences we have from one hour or day to the next, whatever their degree of importance.
For many people around the world there is one day of the week to rest, often on a Saturday or Sunday as whatever spiritual practice they may follow dictates. It would seem by design that the work week often dictates a Monday through Friday schedule so there is such a thing as a “week end”, in which those fortunate enough to live in such a design have not one, but two days to rest or worship the god of their choice.
Granted, there is more now than ever, or so it seems, to do. Perhaps this is why rest and the lack of it that people are experiencing has become such a prominent topic in resistance movements that now exist as our species clamors to reclaim its collective breath and determine what is really necessary to do and what can just be left to gather dust.
To rest is to know where you are at any given time or place. Rest enables a knowing that what we are here for doesn’t need to be proven or explained with anything other than our very own expiration date. Rest is shedding all that you cannot possibly hold close to your chest for some other time, for it will be there when you are ready to face it again. Rest is unencumbered by time, it is always peaceful or it is not rest.
TimeSpaceOne 