The Bliss of Rest

Posted on October 11, 2019 by dragonspitapothecary

There is nothing more pleasurable to me than sliding into a fresh made bed with clean sheets that are cool and soft to the touch and being so tired it feels like I sink into the mattress. It’s like a deep grounding connection of my body to the Earth where I’m enveloped in warmth, comfort and softness. Feeling the weight of a quilt I personally made placed over me secures me even more deeply in a safe, comforting place where I can rest. This is blissful.

What troubles me is the times I’m so exhausted from my day but when I go to bed I toss, turn, flip blankets on and off and generally don’t sleep well at all. Why is it when we are spent on energy and exhaustion takes over we have the hardest time sleeping? Our dreams are not at all restful and our minds never settle? It’s like a cosmic pull against what we very much need and instead of resting and recharging we are watching the hours pass in the darkness.

Too many people I love have trouble sleeping. I too have times where I just don’t sleep well and it’s a challenge to capture those precious hours of sleep. As we age our sleep also changes and we find ourselves sleeping less. Regardless of how blissful our place of rest is we can’t seem to shift into beautiful dreams and enjoy the deep sense of security, contentment and rest under our quilts and blankets.

Bridget

I made a quilt for a sweet friend of mine who was suffering from leukemia. She wrote about the day she went in for her diagnosis saying she put on one of her favorite summer dresses and prepared herself for a war she hadn’t planned being part of her life. She told me after hearing this news that she had the “good kind of cancer” as if there was even such a thing I thought but she wasn’t going to let slow her down and this just something she would brush off easily. Her fight was strong and she went bravely through it all the way until cancer took her just one year later.

The quilt I made her was pink, white with flowers and sparkly fabric that was incredibly girly and feminine, while being warm and strong – just like her. I put a thick cuddly heavy fabric as the backing for extra warmth. She said she was always cold during treatments and when she tried to sleep so I thought this may help. When she got the quilt she said it was like being wrapped in a hug from me. Her husband told me that quilt went with her to every treatment and every hospital stay and was around her when she passed. She specifically asked him to save that quilt and be sure to pass it on to their grandchildren as a reminder of a hug from her.

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