Sleep

People who work with me know that I live and die by the power nap. I blame it on my parents who insisted that I take a siesta every day up until I went to school. Even when I went to school, I would still catch forty winks when I went home for lunch break. And in college? I lived in the dorm so I practically napped after every class.

As I come to know myself better, I realize that my sleeping habits are a great indicator of what I am sometimes unable to express verbally. I have difficulty sleeping in new place. I realized it wasn't because I wasn't tired, it was because I did not feel secure enough to let all my defenses down. I have difficulty sleeping when I have many things on my mind. No matter how much I tell myself that worrying doesn't help, my mind seems to have, well, a mind of its own. It goes on and on and on. I have difficulty sleeping when I'm not feeling well. It's my body's way of telling me that something is wrong even if I haven't felt it yet. And sometimes, my dreams help me realize what I'm too scared to admit even to myself.

When I was younger, I often wondered why God invented sleep. Wouldn't the world have been more productive if humans didn't feel the need to sleep? We'd just go on from one task to the next and maybe what the world accomplished in one century could have been done in 60 years.

But as I've grown older, I've realized that sleep is one of God's greatest gifts. I mean really. It is the universe's way of telling us that there ought to be a time when we must be quiet and hidden because only then can we face our true selves. It's a physical manifestation of what is an essential mental, emotional and spiritual act-the act of letting go, of surrendering to the great unknown. And that's something we need to be reminded every day-that there are definite moments in our lives when we need to rest, to let go of anger, hurt, sadness, sometimes even happiness, to stop thinking, to be still, to allow God to work His miracles in us… to just be. Because only then can we make room for the promise of tomorrow.