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“I Was Sleepwalking Through My Life”
Why I need to read Arianna Huffington’s new book and why you might, too.
For my Spiritual Practices class this term, we are studying Play and Rest. Sounds like a nice time, huh? Well, it is. But, it is full of introspection and painful honesty about our own habits, the surrounding cultural norms, and shame around both of these topics.
Why do we not allow ourselves to rest? Why do we not play anymore? What is the use of the Sabbath? Is it an outdated practice or should we reinvigorate it somehow? Where do we start?
This last week of class, we are addressing sleep, formally.
Illuminating the shadow, the cause of grief, loss, and pain (and the lessons therefrom), has shaped the course of the past few years of my life.
Starting in 2016, I made choices to care for myself in a way I had never attempted. I made choices to finish school, work on a career, and think for myself. This was the hardest and most lonely year of my life. None of the choices I made were culturally acceptable, my education was unnecessary according to those closest to me, and my thinking forced me to file for divorce a few years later. Dangerous days, those were.
What I don’t have from most of this time of my life, are memories. I know it…
