Daily Grat: Sleeping Late

I probably don't get enough sleep most of the time. I know this. It's an issue. I'm not alone.

But often, if there's nothing to do on a Saturday, I get the chance to sleep late. This morning, it was until 9:30...which will seem pretty late to some, and still pretty early to others. It was perfect for today.

First, let me acknowledge that I know not everybody gets this little grace. Lots of folks have lives where they *never* get to "sleep in." Because of of jobs where there's never a morning off, because of the need to care for small kids, teenagers with insane schedules, older parents, etc, etc...

I know just how rare this "daily gratitude" is for some people. Which only makes me all the more grateful.

Today, it felt like just enough to get "caught up" for the week.

I know, I know, experts will tell you "You never catch up..."

So why does it always feel like I do?

Sometimes, if I can just get that final hour or two on a Saturday morning, it wipes away all the too-short nights of the week. Wipes them clean.

I've had to work very very hard in life not to get too wound up that I can't sleep. The brain often wants to keep working, even when the body wants to rest. Playing guitar often helps. (that"Prayer and Meditation" effect I mentioned the other day...)

Reminding myself that there's often nothing else I can do, right at that moment, helps. Breathing helps. Trusting and surrendering helps. It takes a trust in your body, a trust in the rhythm of life, a trust that it comes around every 24-hours, to allow yourself to sleep well.

In a sense, sleep is about accepting our limitations and learning to love them. Sleep really is like a small, nightly death. Maybe that's why, even as little babies, we resist it so much. There's always a potential finality there that scares us.

The beauty is, like death, we always wake up.

Maybe that's what sleep is trying to teach us.

I am so grateful for sleep.
And so thankful for a life where late Saturdays are possible.

(During this year, my goal is to find something new to be thankful for every single day, and to add that thanksgiving as a blog entry, under the title "My Daily Gratitude." I started this kick back around Thanksgiving, and it's already resulted in a favorite new song of mine. The goal of this ongoing spiritual exercise is to see if doing such a thing might inspire even more gratitude within me, and to foster general awareness of life on a deeper level.)