Imagine the silly giggle of a child responding to a funny face on a cartoon show.  Close your eyes to feel the warm breeze blowing across your face during a spring afternoon. Ponder the people, paths, and intersections and the unique journey that has made up the story called your life. Lean back and allow yourself to imagine and dream of faraway places, desires of your heart, great legacies to leave, and life-changing impact to make in, through and for your life and the lives of others.
All of those things are wonderful parts of life to enjoy and share. However, how many of us overlook or don’t slow our lives down enough to take in and enjoy the full pleasure of the moment? How often do we say to ourselves, family, and friends, “Work and getting things done can wait. I just want to enjoy the now with you.”?
I am the first to raise my hand to say I have struggled with that crazy word called, “rest.” For me, rest was something done after everything important, needed, and should be done was finished. Rest was something that I could “always do later.” My eyes were opened wide when a good buddy challenged me to do nothing but rest for a full day. “Easy, no problem”, I thought. Well it was easy for about the first 20 minutes.
I sat in bed watching television. Then with each passing minute, I began to think about the list of things I “needed” to get done. Slowly, my mind shifted from the television program I was watching to wondering about the things I could be doing instead of wasting my time doing nothing.  I was given a challenge and I was going to see it through. To me, that meant I was to stay in a resting environment but that did not mean I could not get something accomplished while resting. So I took out my notepad that I keep next to my pen and post it notes (for any sudden thoughts of lists I needed to make) and began to make a new list of the things I was going to do once I stopped the task of resting. I started a new outline for an upcoming book and a game plan for a speaking event. Once I completed my lists and outlines, I decided I could still get some computer work done while sitting in bed and justify calling it rest. Within two hours, I was answering phone calls, writing out presentations and writing new chapters all from the comfort of my bed and managed to form my lips to call it rest.
That evening, my buddy called to check in on my day of rest. I was proud of myself. Instead of receiving affirmation of my attempt to rest, she talked about me like a dog! She insisted that the only change from that day to the previous one was that I was WORKING from bed instead of my usual chair. Wow!
Hate it or appreciate it, she was absolutely right. How many of us find it difficult to have guilt-free rest without feeling uncomfortable or having the need to doing something while resting? Why are our lives filled with such activity, busyness, tight schedules, day planners, IMing, cell phones in the grocery stores and bathrooms, and no time to talk?  Why is it so hard to simply be still, listen and take in the moment without doing anything at all?
I have come a long way since the day my buddy challenged me with that wonderful task. However, I had to learn sobering lessons to my pride such as, “Regardless of my value, the world can and will run very well without me” and “In my coffin, no one will care about what I did as much as they will need to remember who I was and what time we shared.”
I also had to learn, for me, some of the reasons resting and being quiet were difficult. To rest completely meant time was available to think, remember and ponder some things in my life, some of which I didn’t want to think about or remember. By not resting, I did not allow myself time to deal with issues, deep desires in my life or even big dreams that I longed to happen. As long as I was busy, I didn’t have to deal or think or dream…just do and then do the next thing.
Finally in the process of learning to rest, I had to come to terms with the reality that I’m okay, acceptable and have worth regardless if I am accomplishing something, busy, achieving, or just laying in bed the entire day doing absolutely nothing. For so long, my worth was attached to my performance and what I did. I found it difficult to separate the two. In my mind, if I was not doing something, somehow my value was lessened than others who were out there accomplishing things.
My problem was not being able to rest, it was the lie I believed about the idea of resting and the value I gave to my performance instead of my worth as a person.  Although, many years have passed since the day I was challenged, resting was and continues to be a process of learning to be a human being instead of a human doer. Truly it is a joy worth having.
Now I challenge you to take a day to do NOTHING but rest. You can do this.
No more excuses. This is our time.
Take care
Charlotte
Dream Madly, Pursue Wildly, Trust Completely
Copyright © 2014 by Charlotte D. Hunt
All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, or otherwise- without written permission from the author except for brief quotations in printed reviews.
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