Sleep is trending right now. I've seen articles all over town about it, especially in magazines we have subscriptions to that I don't read.. The Atlantic, Harpers and the New Yorker. But don't worry when people come up to visit, I fan them out all over the house.
I desperately wish I was an overachiever in the sleep department, by which I mean an underachiever in the department of needing a lot of it. Un-achieving a lot of hours sleeping while achieving a lot during day time hours working. You know what I mean. The high end of the spectrum is reserved for people like Martha Stewart (clocking 4 hours, a fact which everyone in our world is well aware of, but, was also recently mentioned in this months Vanity Fair - one of my prescriptions which I now can read portions of, especially if I'm not sleeping on plane). The low end of the spectrum is for children and dogs. Rock bottom is for species that make cocoons. (Which are also trending right now. Along with tarot, fermentation and the return of scrunchies. And there you have the Saipua trend report; you're welcome.)
I was in California last week, working on some projects. I was traveling alone and had become strung out on the time change and the 4:00 wake up calls for the flower market (New York florists never hit 28th street before 6:00 - and the best, most fashionable of the set never are seen before 8am! If I want to run into my friend Emily I plan to have lunch in the area.) After a week of 5 hours of sleep a night, I started speaking in tongues during important meetings. I was leaving dinner parties before dinner was served. That low grade sleep deprivation headache hit me by Friday; the kind that makes me wish I could unscrew my eyeballs and take a pressure washer to the inside of my skull.
Now I'm back at home on the farm, trying to regain my 8-hour routine. I plan to take naps but then always end up working through the afternoon...too focused on accomplishments. Counting them, stacking them up in my brain. Did I do enough today to feel good, to feel right. If I take a hot bath, a long walk with the dog, or even an hour just to lay down...these things also become categorized as things to get done. Self care? Check!
How do I get to the other side of that? To the place where rest just is. Shaking off my own expectations and judgements, walking away from my tickertape inner monologue, leaving my work persona for a moment. I glance out the window at all the trees blowing in a sudden breeze...who am I?
Oh well, 4o'clock. Time to go tear some shit up on the tractor.
15 comments:
don't have children. or maybe you already do. shit gets shitty.
I think the L.A. flower mart opens around 2, 3? The times I've had to drive down there, I arrive around 5:30 am and most of the good stuff if cleared out. I haul ass around the mart, trying to scour miles of vendors as fast as possible, watching a few of them sell out by 6 am and shut their gates....I'm back in the car by 8 am to sit in traffic for a two or three hour drive home. It's grueling. The selection is better, and I can haggle on prices, but man that is no way to start an event week! Now I just pay a lot more to have it shipped up to the house. I don't know how you do it, what with traveling on top of event work. I think 'self care' belongs on the check list :)
You don't. Get to the other side where rest just is, I mean. At least not during waking hours. That's why you need alllll the sleep, it's the only time get a break from the inside of your head. (I say you, but I mean me too.)
I also wonder how to get to the other side... Pls, let my know if you ever find the answer ;)
scrunchies!!
Do you mean subscriptions, rather than prescriptions? Maybe that's a Freudian slip...
If you refer to moi, mais oui, because I have to pace myself for the eternal haul. And lunch with Ms. S is the reward.
I love your writing. Generally when I catch up on blogs I scan through, but always with yours, I enjoy reading it fully and laugh a bit to myself. You speak the truth.
Oh how I wish I were good at sleeping. I happen to require a whole lot of it, myself. But I suck at getting to sleep in the first place. (which could have something to do with requiring more) Hmmm. Your photos, by the way, are just stunningly beautiful. You take photos like that look like old realist still life paintings.
I am big on sleep. I need it or I can't function. I try to get a really god, long oversleeping session at least 3x a week! It's hard to find time, but if you can find a night to pass out early it's worth it!
I recently made a new rule: no caffeine on nap days.
I have a hard time shutting down my brain at times which makes sleep as elusive as the mythical beasts I read about as a kid. But then I remind myself about a babbling idiot I'll be the next day if I don't fall asleep so I visualize myself driving to a town called Sleep, which makes the idea of "going to sleep" more appealing to my brain. Either that or I force myself to think of really boring, repetitive tasks so that I bore myself to sleep. It actually works quite well. So does melatonin and chamomile.
I love sleeping. And those Dahlias! Jesus, they are stunning.
Reading your blog is my break... and my reality check.
Martha always makes me feel shockingly unaccomplished....
The best idea is to give surprise to our friends by sending online gifts and flowers.
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