Good News & Gratitude #6

Shoutout to Naps, Random Acts (and Words) of Kindness, and Everything Else Wonderful!

Hello Beyonders,

Before moving into the kindness, a brief update on my Daily Rest progress. Sunday was my first Day of No Income Work or Chores. I hadn’t had a day like that in so long, I was excited—and actually a little nervous. Luckily, my cousin swooped in and invited me out to her lake cottage. It was a perfect day of sunshine, good food, and even better company. I got home around seven; after I fed Rudy and Delilah and walked D there was still time to squeeze in work. The draw was mesmerizing! But I resisted.

I’ve also made sure to take half an hour of rest each day. This is so foreign to me, yet I’ve surprised myself by taking to it tremendously well. Mostly, I lie on the grass in my back garden or sit on my very comfy lawn chair. On Tuesday, the moment my rest began, I fell asleep! Okay, it only lasted about twelve minutes. But, still. Do you know the last time this raised-by-two-wartorn-Brits Capricorn napped? Never. So, yeah, my body seems pleased with this new arrangement.

To be honest, my body has been calling for this for months: Each morning, I would say, “yes, okay” and then never find the time. As is far too common for many of us, I had to hit the wall before finally making changes.

I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse into one of the reasons I’ve been so skillfully dodging rest for decades now. For the past few years, I’ve struggled with daily vertigo. Some days it’s in the background; other days front and center, and those days are hard. So, likewise, it’s hard to sit and rest whilst everything around me is moving. The go-go-goness of my life has been both a necessity for the amount of responsibility I carry and also a way to distract myself from how disheartening and scary my health can be at times. This is just one of many symptoms I’ve struggled with over the past two and a half decades (luckily, I’m wildly better than I once was), so it’s no wonder I developed this habit of never stopping. Wednesday was a bad day and I found myself doing one thing after another after another to push back the rest. Happy to report, that once it began, I settled in quite nicely.

Thursday I tried something new: I crawled into bed for rest time. It felt wonderful! I snuggled up next to my sweet kitty, Rudy Lu, and was able to see my bedroom in a whole new way. The soft afternoon light on the walls shifting the color, the tops of the trees swaying in the wind as the birds sang, my overflowing bookshelves, things I normally only observe getting into and then out of bed. It was comforting to get to know them in this new way (I may have lingered well past the half hour alarm).

After (unconsciously) fighting rest for decades, I’m astounded and pleased with how easily I’m adjusting to this. I think I’ll be fine keeping it up!

Now onto the kindness: This is something I think about a great deal. One of my questions in my The Body, Brain, & Books questionnaire is: What’s a kindness that changed your life? Because kindness can be life changing. And certainly it makes the days much gentler.

Last week, Delilah, Cookie, and I were on our morning walk down Cross Street. A woman was approaching us: she had a baby tucked in the crook of her right arm and was guiding a toddler by his hand with her left. They were a beautiful family and I was about to say as much as we passed, but before I could get a word out the woman said, “Good lord, you are gorgeous!”

This is not at all how I think of myself! But even if it were, her words touched my soul so deeply. I lit up inside. It wasn’t so much the compliment on my alleged beauty, it was that often fleeting but potent experience of being seen. It’s so important.

Then on Tuesday, shortly before my glorious nap, I went to the co-op. In the parking lot, there was this van with a super cute logo on it (a bear!) for a local kombucha company and the driver was tending to things in the back. We got to talking and she offered me a dented can (yes, can! bottles are apparently hard to come by these days…) of kombucha that had fallen on the ground. We chatted some more about the importance of buying local and that the bear was inspired by the owner’s huge dog and the beautiful tattoo she had on the shaved part of her head, and then she offered me another can, this time of their latest flavor. I thanked her for both and said I hoped someone did something kind for her that day. She smiled big, welled up, and said people did kind things for her every day. She was lucky, she said, she was surrounded by kindness.

What a beautiful way to live!

It reminded me of a few years back, once more out walking D and Cookie, this pickup truck came barreling down East Forest and a woman stuck her head out the window and yelled: “I love your dogs!!” My heart swelled.

It’s so easy to be kind. It’s much harder and more exhausting, and it leaves a sticky residue, to be mean. I’m pretty shy by nature, yet nearly every day, I find myself blurting out something kind to a stranger. Or doing something that might be helpful. I don’t plan to say any of what I say; it’s just how I feel in my heart and it bubbles out almost beyond my control. And I feel lighter because of it. Of course, some days, blug, I’m not kind. And I can feel that residue in my tightened-up body. So: apparently kindness is good for the receiver and the giver.

Like the kombucha driver, I have a lot of kindness in my life—both in real life, online, and now, here, on Beyond. And I never stop being deeply touched by it. In many ways, due to my health my life is still fairly isolated, so these brief moments of kindness buoy my spirit considerably. Passing kindnesses can be so sweet!!

So, that’s it! Let’s be kind to one another, as best as we’re able.

How about you? Anyone say or do something kind to/for you lately? How did it make you feel? Have you been doling out kindness? Anyone else unexpectedly napping? Resting? Seeing their home or life differently? Having interesting dog walks? Chatting with strangers?

Let’s hear your good news and gratitude about naps, kindness, dogs, cats, or anything else! What brought you joy this week?