Dear ones –

There are few magic bullets in this life. But enough water, some movement done regularly, and enough sleep will do an awful lot for a person.

Today, I’m focused on enough sleep. I could tell you about pink salt and lemon in water (yum, natural Gatorade!) or about my new underdesk bike, but nope, it’s sleepy time.

Are you getting the sleep you need? I sincerely doubt it. Nevertheless, it’s really the core of persistent gentleness and gentle persistence. And if you’ve read any of my Reflections before, you’ve probably seen that phrase.

I don’t want you just to be persistently gentle. I want you to be RELENTLESSLY gentle with yourself on this point.

Some of you are what one doctor called a comrade of ours, “efficient sleepers.” You simply don’t need as much sleep as others.
Some of you are middle-of-the-road sleepers, and do fine with 7-9 hours of sleep a night and work, remember, and even create.
And some of you, like me, are nappers. We snag a little extra bit when we can.

Study after study after study show that Americans are chronically underslept. And study after study also show that we remember things better, we have better word recall, and are safer behind the wheel of a car when we’ve had enough sleep.

The thing for me, though, is that I find sleep magical.
Seriously. I have an half-baked idea, right? I have some crack-brained, little thread of something.
If I sleep on it, thinking of it consciously before bed for three nights in a row, more often than not, I wake up after the third night with a whole new plan.
I wake up not with the linear, “baked” version of my original idea, but with a whole new one, something I could never had imagined if I were just trying to think it up.

I know many of you spend a lot of your time creating things. You are artists, poets, writers, preachers, potters…
Can you get some more sleep?

And hey, if you’re having trouble, just come visit Portland – the weather will knock you right out for hours!

All my love—

~Catharine~