Ever since I was young, I’ve enjoyed sleep. Whenever someone asks me what my favorite pastime, hobby, thing I do when I’m not dancing is, I say, “sleep.” But sleep can be challenging for some, and I don’t have a perfect record of restful nights.
That said, a comment a friend recently posted reminded me of something that has helped me rest, and something that my parents shared with me early in life.
That is, “Whatever you do during the day, make sure you can go to bed at night with a clear conscious.”
Sleep is directly related to the activity of the day. If there is anything that happens during the course of the day that strikes me the wrong way, then my journey to sleep will take some work. However, if all my actions over the course of the day are reconcilable to the values I’ve been given to hold, then sleep is easy.
I remember reading that there was a time when some people believed that when you went to sleep, you literally went to visit God. Makes sense then (if you believe), that we wouldn’t want to go for the visit if we weren’t comfortable with what we had done. Better to have that conversation before the visit.
And then, there is grace.