I love sleep. Sometimes I ask "Did you sleep well?" or state "I slept great!", as if sleeping is a skill that can be controlled and done well or poorly! My mom says that I'm her only child (of 8) that she never really had to tell to go take a nap. Even as a little girl, I knew when I was tired and needed to sleep - and would just go do it. This skill became rather latent in college when I spent many nights awake into the wee hours studying, hanging with friends, or getting up at 4am to head to crew practice. Rowing on a perfectly still lake as the sun rose...so worth the lack of sleep.
These past five years, while we were hopping around countries, in and out of hotel rooms, and spending nights in international airports, I developed a strong love for airports that help me sleep! Prague's airport is the best - it has a "resting room" with pillows and couches! Bangkok offers seats with no arm-rests so that you can lay across the chairs in the middle of the night, Taipei offers free sessions in massage chairs and quiet gardens, and even Philadelphia offers rocking chairs up and down the hallways. Unfortunately, I sleep a thousand times better lying down than sitting up.
I am so amazed when I see people sleeping sitting up. Today I saw a homeless man bundled up and surrounded by his things while dozing on an overpass. I also saw a child leaned against his Daddy's chest slightly drooling as he slept in a morning church service. I saw a photograph of a man holding a big dog to his chest, while leaning against a building, both fast asleep.
In the last few days, we've tried to find new places to sleep. We have a one-week plan in a long-term hotel studio, but we're hoping that either the short-sale house we put an offer on over two months ago, or the house we plan to offer on tomorrow morning, will yield a contract by the end of the week that will become our long-term sleeping solution. But, even as we plan, I've decided that my goal for the end of the week should not be results (because what control do we really have over the results? I mean, really, did I sleep well?!) but instead that I will have put my hope in the right place, having "calmed myself and quieted my ambitions..." (David, Psalm 131).
In the end, I can sleep almost anywhere. I know this is true. I've lived it.
But there's only one place that I can place my hope. I know this is true. I've lived it.
These past five years, while we were hopping around countries, in and out of hotel rooms, and spending nights in international airports, I developed a strong love for airports that help me sleep! Prague's airport is the best - it has a "resting room" with pillows and couches! Bangkok offers seats with no arm-rests so that you can lay across the chairs in the middle of the night, Taipei offers free sessions in massage chairs and quiet gardens, and even Philadelphia offers rocking chairs up and down the hallways. Unfortunately, I sleep a thousand times better lying down than sitting up.
I am so amazed when I see people sleeping sitting up. Today I saw a homeless man bundled up and surrounded by his things while dozing on an overpass. I also saw a child leaned against his Daddy's chest slightly drooling as he slept in a morning church service. I saw a photograph of a man holding a big dog to his chest, while leaning against a building, both fast asleep.
In the last few days, we've tried to find new places to sleep. We have a one-week plan in a long-term hotel studio, but we're hoping that either the short-sale house we put an offer on over two months ago, or the house we plan to offer on tomorrow morning, will yield a contract by the end of the week that will become our long-term sleeping solution. But, even as we plan, I've decided that my goal for the end of the week should not be results (because what control do we really have over the results? I mean, really, did I sleep well?!) but instead that I will have put my hope in the right place, having "calmed myself and quieted my ambitions..." (David, Psalm 131).
In the end, I can sleep almost anywhere. I know this is true. I've lived it.
But there's only one place that I can place my hope. I know this is true. I've lived it.
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