We are taught early to feel vaguely guilty about napping, which is weird because even Rip Van Winkle got a huge pay off when he woke up after getting his head down for a quick 20 years.
You know how the story goes. Rip wakes to find decades have passed, his delinquent children grown into responsibility, his nagging wife dead, and impending political upheaval resolved. Basically, all the things in his life that were overwhelming him had disappeared and he could now live peacefully knowing that he'd dodged the draft, his children would take care of him in his old age, and the woman he promised to love forever had perished alone, in despair.
Nowadays, children are the only ones encouraged, sometimes begged, to take naps. Once you reach adulthood, naps become an underrated activity. Maybe even shameful, something to sneak in when no one is watching.
Unless you're Husband, who proudly naps like a champ. Napping is a sacred duty and must be performed daily, between 13:00 and 14:00, or whenever it's most likely that I will suddenly feel the urge to violently move all the pots and pans from one side of the kitchen to the other.
Generally though, a napping grown up is not considered to be contributing the GDP in an effective manner and should probably get back to work, or at least mow the lawn.
There is definitely something delicious about napping. A cheeky luxury that we admit only to our closest friends when asked what we did on the weekend.
"Me? I napped on the sofa. For, like, the whole afternoon. Even though I was supposed to be filing my taxes like an adult. It Was Epic."
I sit here watching my cat napping, with her toes flexing, her little orange body curled into a peaceful circle, and I know I have never been that relaxed in my life.
Of course she's relaxed, she doesn't have deadlines and hasn't recently discovered a grey hair in her eyebrow.
I think North Americans are shy about napping because historically we've had to work really hard to clear lands and build roads and feed the chickens. Indigenous cultures weren't going to suppress themselves, so up up up! Hands of rocks and on with socks! I get it. 350 years of that can be habit forming and without the soporific effect of the European sunshine, or cholera, we gave up napping in lieu of getting shit done.
I do remember vividly the best nap, perhaps the only real nap, I have ever taken. I fell asleep across the foot of the bed in our house in Comox. It was a perfect afternoon, with the clearest blue sky. The neighbourhood was drowsy and calm. The Neighbourhood Idiot Child had either gone to terrorize a different part of town or had finally learned how to stop yelling from the sidewalk and go inside to get his own freezie. Someone up the street was mowing their lawn (pfft, grown up) and the breeze through my bedroom windows carried the lemony cucumber smell of fresh cut grass. I woke up after 20 minutes and for one second, grasped the edges of what inner peace must feel like.
Then Jesse vomited salmon bones expansively on the carpet and life has carried on pretty much up until this point.
We all deserve a break in our lives. We need to give ourselves permission to take a few minutes to rest, to refresh our bodies and minds. We all deserve a fleeting glimpse of inner peace.
And after 10 years, I could really use another nap.
