On this one hundred and forty-second day I found a renewed appreciation …
for a nap
on the couch
I come from a long line of hard workers who appreciate the art of the nap.
My grandfather and my father, they hold the napping honors in my family.
Both could go from awake to snore in 60 seconds flat.
I remember visiting my grandparents on the farm as a little girl. Inevitably, we would find my grandfather face down on the floor of the living room.
To anyone else this would have looked potentially morbid, but we were used to it, as it was his favorite spot to catch a cat nap after being out in the fields all morning long.
My favorite spot is a couch.
To me, a good nap just isn’t the real thing on a bed.
A bed is for sleeping, silly!
But, a couch, well that is the ideal napping place for me.
Add a little sun poking in the windows, my body covered and snuggled in a light blanket, maybe even a pillow …well, that’s just nap-tastic.
My college friends Lisa and Laura had their own secret formula for afternoon naps. They kept a special tape just for napping (yes, a TAPE, as in VCR or VHS — if any of these words are foreign to you please replace with DVD or TIVO, your choice).
The tape was a recording of a golf tournament on TV.
My friends would plop the tape into the VCR whenever one wanted a nap and needed the magic formula (AKA: boring golf commentators with low whispery drawls potent enough to induce sleep). It was the napping tape.
Brilliant!
Today, I may not have had the luxury of a pre-recorded golf game to send me into some z’s, but I did rediscover my own nap gene.
It’s not only good for my body, it’s good for my soul.
One little nap actually reminded me that the best part of falling asleep is waking up. Everything has a way of looking brighter when I have rested eyes.
While my dad and grandfather passed down their love of napping, I think I could take a lesson from someone else who has perfected the nap and taken it to another level:
Pup.
And, ironically, he prefers the bed.
