Crawl Back In Bed and Rest

Photo by Alexander Possingham on Unsplash

"Mom?" I whisper into the darkness.

Silence. Then the rustling of the sheets as she rolls over in bed.

"What is it, Maggie?" she responds.

"I can't sleep."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just can't sleep."

"Crawl back in bed and shut your eyes. Even if you can't fall asleep, you'll still be getting much-needed rest."

"Okay. Goodnight, Mom."

The other night I had a hard time falling asleep. I don't know if it was the jitters of moving or if I simply binged too many Supernatural episodes that day. Either way, my mind was racing. I listened to every car drive by, every creak of the house, my husband's steady breath. All the while, my mind raced.

As I stared at the ceiling, I thought of my mom's advice: Crawl back in bed and rest.

As much as I wish that every night I could instantly fall into deep REM sleep and dream of sunshine and rainbows -- getting enough z's to be completely energized the next day that I wouldn't even hit snooze once -- that's not always going to be the case.

Sometimes I'll have nightmares or my husband will snore. Sometimes I won't be able to get comfortable or the car alarm next door will go off five times. In those moments, I need to be grateful for the rest. Sometimes resting has to be good enough.

In life, we want the best -- health, wealth, happiness, and peace -- for ourselves and our loved ones, but things don't always go as planned. It's tempting to compare our lives to the ideal and to get frustrated and upset. But in those moments, we can be grateful for what we have, even if it's not the perfect night's sleep and all we can do is crawl back in bed and rest.