Broadsheet: The Art of the Nap

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. - Cyril Connolly

Sunday, July 10, 2005

The Art of the Nap

I rediscovered one of life's simpler pleasures this week while I was off awaiting the start of the new job. That would be the fine, and in my case, lost, art of napping. It started innocently enough. Last Sunday, after the horrors of the Toronto day trip, I suddenly felt enormously fatigued in the afternoon and decided to lay down on the couch - and woke TWO hours later. I felt like Rip Van Winkle, but it felt GOOD.

It happened again, without warning this time, on Monday while I was reading. It could have been all the exertion of going to the matinee that afternoon with Snay to see "War of the Worlds", but I think it was more a realization that I COULD take an actual nap if I wanted to. Wow - now there's a revelation.

By the time I got to Tangier on Wednesday (after dozing off on the upper deck of the ferry in the breezy sunshine with hum of the motor to hypnotize me), I had incorporated not only a nap into the daily schedule, but also the very odd habit of sleeping until 7:30 in the morning! Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a notoriously early riser (thanks Mom). Getting a good night's sleep, let alone sleeping in till hours after sunrise is completely decadent to me.

I have discovered that I like the luxury of falling asleep on the beach in the late afternoon sunshine, or under the umbrella in a chair reading a book out on the pier, or even the most guilty pleasure of all - actually laying down on the bed in the middle of the day with the intention of napping. Perhaps I'm actually relaxing this week after all...

Therefore, in honor of this last true day of vacation, I leave you to enjoy a final mid afternoon nap. I shall miss them dearly.

posted by Broadsheet @ 1:01 PM