Time for Sleep

Julia Cameron has a Creativity Contract at the beginning of the book. It asks the seeker to commit–at least for the duration of going through the course–to “excellent self-care, adequate sleep, good food, and gentle companionship”.  In looking at this picture, it strikes me that I have a lot to learn from my son on this front, especially the sleeping part.  As you can see, Avery listens well when his body tells him he needs rest.  I, on the other hand, have gone to sleep between 1:00am-4:00am each night this past week.

That’s because all toddlers are hard-wired for excellent self-care.  They don’t try to fit these things into their busy lives; they DEMAND them.  And when you ignore their demands, they take matters into their own hands.

Cameron often refers to our inner artist as a child.  But when our artist-child acts out and we ignore it, it simply pouts and hides.  This might seem like an acceptable outcome (in both cases), but the risk is that those heart-warming bursts of creativity–like my son’s neck-squeezing hugs–go away.  And I’m realizing that I need them both to live.

So yes, Mommy is cranky and needs a really long TIME OUT, like eight hours uninterrupted.  Think I’ll go take it now.