Drawing from the Well
Scenes Arranged: 0
Total Scenes: 154
I’m officially in a dry spell. It’ll turn around soon. I hope today, but, frankly, I’m not confident on that. It doesn’t feel good, but life is not making it easy right now. I’ll get back to it…
Filling the Well
That Hideous Strength: 50%
Sightwitch: 64%
Jessica Jones: S2E10 of 13
I got a lot of audiobook “reading” done on Friday as I drove around running many errands. That Hideous Strength has finally turned a corner and is starting to get interesting (FINALLY). I’m curious to see where it goes. Sightwitch is great and I’m enjoying the ever-focusing ride. Can’t wait to get more in.
Polishing the Well
This weekend was a lot. We got our first anniversary cake Friday (yes, a month late. I know.).
And then we had a wedding on Saturday.
And then Sunday we did a styled shoot (the leading picture of this section). I am so immensely proud of her for all the work she did in advance to put together a beautiful space. Official pictures will come in from ALL the photographers (expected 21 but there were at least 30 there yesterday) in a couple of weeks. Lora is incredible and has a killer mind and eye for design. Wedding planning is the job she was designed by God to have. Again, I cannot express the pride I feel for all she is and all she does.
Well Chat
The Importance of Rest
It’s been a while, Wellers. Four days I’ve missed. I think that’s the longest this year. I will admit, it doesn’t feel good. I had started a blog post yesterday but never finished it so it didn’t get posted (obviously). But I decided last night that my battery was running dangerously close to empty and it was time to throw in the towel and rest.
What a difference it has made.
My eyes are still grainy this morning, but I feel like I’m running at about 75-80% today rather than the 10-15% yesterday. One good night’s sleep turned me around. Another decent night’s sleep (which is less good than good, but better than bad) should get me back to full strength. See, I have routines in the morning and with so much going on, I haven’t been getting enough sleep (never mind rest) to keep up with them and feel whole.
What’s the difference between sleep and rest you ask? Most Americans use the words interchangeably since we like synonyms and hyperbole so much. But they ARE different. Sleep is exactly what you always thought: trading consciousness for time for your body to rebuild damage and charge up your energy. Rest is different. You do this when waking and the trade off here isn’t for consciousness, but productivity.
Rest is what you do when you engage in hobbies that are low- to no-stress. Reading a book. Watching a television show. Writing. Listening to music. Painting. Exercising. Playing board or video games. All of these things can be low stress (granted they can be high stress too if you approach them with the wrong mindset, but that’s not the point here). The catch is that when you’re engaging in these hobbies for the sake of rest, they have to be almost the only things you’re doing (with the possible exception of listening to music). If you’re reading a book, read the book. Don’t scroll Instagram or have the television on. As soon as you divide your attention, your stress level goes up whether you detect it or not. It takes so much more brain power to ATTEMPT (and often fail) to pay attention to two things at once that it automatically puts you in a higher stress state. That isn’t rest!
I mentioned music as the exception. If you’re going for a run and listen to music while you run, go for it. That helps with the escapism. Same with painting or writing or playing a video game. In those cases, music helps facilitate the restful state by soothing your mind. But think about this: how much more restful would it be to just lie on a couch or a plush rug, stretch out, and listen to your favorite album and do nothing else but tap your foot to the beat? Are you soothed already? Remember doing that as a kid? When nothing else mattered but you and the beat? Get back to that and tell me you aren’t more rested.
Now, this is important, apart from sleep, because that restful state allows your mind to wander and create, even if just through daydreaming. While your mind is off in La La Land, your physical brain will work on repairing damage and building new pathways because you’ve given it the space to do so. Without that, we get run down (sound familiar). Sound familiar?
So take an hour or even just a half hour (forty-five minutes could get you through an album) and do something restful. Disengage from the world and heal yourself. Take two albums and call me in the morning. 😉
Tomorrow we’ll talk about a new phrase of mine and how it perfectly describes the struggle to get through hard days.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG