How's Your ZZZZ Program?

Today is Sunday. Like many of you, I was raised to believe that it was a day of rest. In my particular strand of belief, I understood it to be something we were forced to do because God. A day of rest wasn't really something we needed for any reason that I was aware of. Years ago, stores were closed on Sundays, so we certainly didn't go hang at the mall for the afternoon. When stores began to open on Sundays, I knew people who made it a point of conviction for them not to shop on Sundays, but again, that was because God.

Who hasn't heard that we process an enormous amount of information every day. This infographic is just one example of the extreme amounts.

http://www.adweek.com
/socialtimes/social-
media-overload/488800

Ideas abound. Fasting. Time limitations. Apps that keep us from looking at too many things at once. Ways to configure our devices that minimize the number of interruptions we experience. Quiet hours. Parental controls (some parents still need those).

Besides the waterfall of info coming at us every minutes we are using our devices, some of us also watch television (which in my opinion, is even worse with the amount of information they cram on one screen).

Yes, but how about SLEEP? What are your beliefs about sleep? What do you base your beliefs on?

I listened to Episode 259 of The Extreme Health podcast today. Shawn Stevenson was interviewed. Shawn has made it his business to become an expert on sleep because he believes it has implications for a healthier body, better overall health and bigger successes in our lives.

Besides a goodly number of helpful tips about sleep hygiene, I came away remembering that I am a citizen of the Earth and am intimately connected to the patterns and cycles of the seasons, the day and nights, and the years. Perhaps my demands that every day of the year be treated equally is missing the point that winter and summer are different seasons, and may ask us to do different things. Things that are even more different than simply wearing different clothes and scraping the snow and ice off of our cars.

Maybe there is a quieting in the winter that we could emulate in our schedules and our activities. Maybe there is an openness in summer we could emulate by being outside more and staying up a little longer since we have more light.

Let me leave you with a poem today by Thomas Campion.

Now Winter Nights Enlarge

Now Winter Nights Enlarge
     This number of their hours:
And clouds their storms discharge
     Upon the airy towers.
Let now the chimneys blaze
   And cups o'erflow with wine,
Let well-turned words amaze
   With harmony divine .......

This time doth well dispense
   With lovers' long discourse;
Much speech hath some defense,
    Though beauty no remorse.
All do not all things well:
     Some measures comely tread,
Some knotted riddles tell,
     Some poems smoothly read.
The summer hath his joys,
     And winter his delights;
Though love and all his pleasures are but toys
     They shorten tedious nights.

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