A weekly symbol or card from my collection of unusual cards and oracles*
See this Snoozy lil guy? He brings pointed wisdom in this simple little graphic, about something most of us don’t like to think about: rest. This one really speaks to me for the week ahead. I’ve been feeling a little under the weather and my back injury has been hurting to the point that my eyes are doing a really great daily imitation of the Trevi fountain, my bones are tired, and even my tired is tired. Everything is a day late (including the card of the week post here on this blog) and a donut short. This little glyph says — “GIVE IN to the need to recuperate and rest. Why don’t you STOP, already?!”
In a culture that is so obsessed with perfecting and being on top of nine jillion activities and undertakings, we’re piss poor when it comes to REST. We monitor everything and keep track of so much: Take out the trash and put it into 5 different recycling containers, energize your make-up routine, rotate your wardrobe, spend 5 minutes a day equalizing your mailbox and Franklin Covey-ing that biz, walk 10,000 steps, eat (and track) your breakfast to be sure that it is 40% carbs 40% protein and 20% Saturnine Moon Dust, update and refresh 9 different social media sites (you better NOT miss that post the most fabulous Oreo cookie Blizzard) and keeping track of every blog, update, bill, password, passcode, dot and dash. Not only do we have a lot of WORK to do, we don’t value rest. There’s no friendly congratulations on sleep or recuperation. Since when did you hear a friend proudly say, “I didn’t do anything at all – I just loafed and larped around. Then I napped.” Nope it’s, “I’m SO busy” or “I got about 4 hours of sleep last night” as if those are awesome badges of proliferate DO. We revel in how much we do and celebrate how little we rest.
This week’s card suggests that resting, recuperating, sleeping and re-examining priorities are just as important as “doing”. What if you stopped doing (at least for a short time) some of those things you think you MUST do? What if you let go of a few tasks ? If we’re honest, some of the tasks on our plate do not ABSOLUTELY have to be there. There are tasks you took on for others, or perhaps even “busy work” you gave yourself that just plain isn’t making your life any better. (Do you really have to check on Farmville crops?) There is no true productivity without pauses and breaks and no music without a few rests.
Whether you don’t get enough sleep and rest in your life (or too much, on the flipside) this card calls you to look at what might be out of balance and whether or not your rest is truly restful!
About this deck:
This week’s wisdom comes to us from Synchro-Signs by Mary McNaughton and published by Hampton Roads Publishing . They’re not gorgeous, painterly works of art but they are simple and evocative. This is not a card deck at all (the 101 rudimentary universal symbols and glyphs are printed on tiny 1 inch squares of cardboard -I keep them in a box and mix them like rune-stones) but it’s the only oracle I use when I need to flesh out a writing project or to put myself aside and read on MYSELF or issues at hand.
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