My puppy Wilhelmina Hope was born October 3, 2020. That means tomorrow she is 4 months old and since she came home at 8 weeks, she has lived with me for only 8 weeks. Then I have the most awesome arrangement with my neighbors who are my support people and Willa’s other family and they love on her every night from 4 to 9p and every other weekend. This means in some ways I have shared half of that 8 weeks, and it still feels like she has been around forever. She fits right in, has a great personality, is funny, snuggly and full of energy.
One thing I have learned from Willa, that I want to invite you to consider today, is the importance of rest. Willa must have been tired at the office today so she fell over right where she was and took a nap. I will show you how the day started for Willa.
She woke up about 530 am hungry for breakfast. This was her position when she nuzzled me awake. She somehow has found her sleeping place in the crux of my arm. We then got up and went outside, had breakfast, which took about 2 minutes, and I put her back on my bed. She very quickly snuggled into the pillow pile and was fast asleep again. There is something that makes me smile so big. The peaceful sound of the snore could put me right to sleep.
I then wake her up to leave for work, and she looks at me like I am crazy. She doesn’t move until I scoop her up, and she snuggles into my shoulder like it is way too early to get up! We hit the road, and I am petting her and telling her that she is showing me this morning how smart it would be to take a day to rest sometime,
A day to lay around and not leave the house until we feel like we are done resting. A day when our goal is to do nothing but rest. I am chattering away, and then I listen, and I hear the snore again. Sweet Wilhelmina hope has fallen asleep on the way to work. I guess she just isn’t a morning dog.
I want to encourage each of you to build in a day of rest in the coming month. Find some half or whole day when you live like Willa does and allow yourself nothing but rest. We have had a lot of stress, a fair bit of anxiety, and conflict around us and within us in the last year. Perhaps a real gift to yourself during February is to give yourself a gift, a day of rest.
Let me know if you give it a try and how it is for your soul. Somehow it feels like only good will come! And now Willa is curled up next to me, snoring. I think I will go to sleep.