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Friday open thread: rest
Dec. 22nd, 2023 11:46 amIt's my coffee break, I've got about half a day's work remaining for the year, and then I'm on holiday until 2nd January. In the past, Matthias and I have flown to Australia to spend three weeks with my family in December/January, but the astronomical post-pandemic costs of international flights have put paid to that forever. When we're not in Australia, we tend to travel to Germany to spend Christmas with Matthias's family. However, during the pandemic, everyone got very used to spending this time celebrating separately at home, and realised that although we enjoyed each other's company, doing the big family celebrations every year was exhausting, and we made the decision to alternate between being together in Germany, and going our separate ways (Matthias's sister and her husband and children are spending the holiday in Austria this year).
As a result, once I finish work today, there will be no day-long train trip across five countries (contending with the inevitable chaos of Deutsche Bahn), and instead I will have ten days of uninterrupted rest. I'll read (I've already made a start on my usual seasonal rereads — 'Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night,' The Dark Is Rising, and The Bear and the Nightingale), I'll cook, I'll work my way through the Yuletide collection, we'll go for walks, I'll go swimming and do yoga and set up my new bullet journal, and it will all be incredibly peaceful. All the various food and wine has already been bought, and other than a trip into Cambridge tomorrow, there will be no need to go very far.
All that is by way of preamble to today's open thread prompt: what does 'rest' look like for you?
As you might be able to tell, I don't think of 'rest' as doing very little, or sleeping in (I am physically incapable of sleeping in, and it's been like this all my life — even when I was a teenager, in prime sleeping in age, I never woke up later than about 7 or 8am, and even when I'm incredibly tired or ill, this tends to result in afternoon napping rather than staying asleep longer in the morning), but rather being in absolute control over my own time. Knowing when meals are going to happen and what each meal will involve, knowing that the shopping has been done and that every required item is accounted for, choosing when I want to exercise or read or write or clean or go outside for a walk, without any externally imposed demands: that, for me, is rest. It's restful for my mind, and this in turn affects how relaxed my body feels. I'm so fortunate to be able to be in a situation conducive to this kind of rest, for such an extended period of time.
How about you? What does it mean to you to rest?
As a result, once I finish work today, there will be no day-long train trip across five countries (contending with the inevitable chaos of Deutsche Bahn), and instead I will have ten days of uninterrupted rest. I'll read (I've already made a start on my usual seasonal rereads — 'Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night,' The Dark Is Rising, and The Bear and the Nightingale), I'll cook, I'll work my way through the Yuletide collection, we'll go for walks, I'll go swimming and do yoga and set up my new bullet journal, and it will all be incredibly peaceful. All the various food and wine has already been bought, and other than a trip into Cambridge tomorrow, there will be no need to go very far.
All that is by way of preamble to today's open thread prompt: what does 'rest' look like for you?
As you might be able to tell, I don't think of 'rest' as doing very little, or sleeping in (I am physically incapable of sleeping in, and it's been like this all my life — even when I was a teenager, in prime sleeping in age, I never woke up later than about 7 or 8am, and even when I'm incredibly tired or ill, this tends to result in afternoon napping rather than staying asleep longer in the morning), but rather being in absolute control over my own time. Knowing when meals are going to happen and what each meal will involve, knowing that the shopping has been done and that every required item is accounted for, choosing when I want to exercise or read or write or clean or go outside for a walk, without any externally imposed demands: that, for me, is rest. It's restful for my mind, and this in turn affects how relaxed my body feels. I'm so fortunate to be able to be in a situation conducive to this kind of rest, for such an extended period of time.
How about you? What does it mean to you to rest?