Night and Day

My wife and I just got back from spending a week with our kids and their partners. We rented a house in a great location just steps from Lake Ontario and a trail that followed the coastline. With our adult children living in Canada, any time we get to spend with them is precious and heartwarming. And getting to know their partners better and having a work-free week was a bonus.

In fact, that kind of time away from work and the normal routine is something we all need. I talked about this in my August blog, Taking a Sabbath. With the Autumnal Equinox coming at the end of this month, I thought that with night and day moving toward a time of balance, I’d take another look at what it means to find balance between work and relaxation, between activity and rest.  

I love my work. Whether I’m doing massage, Spiritual Direction, Reiki, or SoulBody Integration, I look forward to connecting with people and supporting them in releasing stress and tension while tunning-in to who they truly are.

Even so, I recently went through a period when, the night before going back to work, I couldn’t sleep.

Now let me give you some background. When my kids were young, they would tell people, “My dad falls asleep before his head hits the pillow.” A little exaggeration, for sure. But sleep has never been an issue for me. Until last month.

My inability to sleep the night before going to work was not only affecting my rest. It was affecting my mental and emotional health and consequently it was affecting my work.

There were plenty of factors that played into what was becoming a pattern. For example, it was a new job, and I was now having to get up and leave the comfort of my home at a certain time. I was working with new people in a new space, with new expectations, and on someone else’s schedule. That’s all a part of working for someone else, which I wasn’t used to.

I had trouble adjusting to my new rhythm of life and my body hadn’t caught up with the changes.

I remember when I moved back to the States from Canada, a Naturopath told me to expect about 6-weeks for my body to adjust to the changes of a new place, a new job, a new schedule, and all that is implied in that transition.

Transitions are hard – even when they are for the best.

There is a process of finding balance that isn’t quite as regimented as we’d like. We don’t work then rest, stand then sit. There’s a gradual process to move from a phase of activity to repose – from doing to being –and back again.

The Autumnal Equinox offers us a beautiful reminder. As summer slips away and autumn settles in, day and night come into near perfect balance. The light begins to fade, the air feels somehow quieter, softer, inviting us inward.

Think for a moment of the song, “Night and Day” sung by Ella Fitzgerald. The stead beat of the words, “Like the tick, tick, tock of the stately clock as it stands against the wall,” calls us into the pauses. The swinging pendulum of the clock finds balance only for a moment. And in that moment, it is silent. And if we are mindful of that moment, we can find a silence within ourselves for what may seem like an hour.

So as we settle into autumn, let’s take time to notice.

Notice the pause between breaths.

Notice your body just before you fall asleep and before you get out of bed.

Notice the moment between night and day.

And notice the pauses in life.

And rest.