Sweet Dreams

As I plopped on my friend's couch after our fiery fish taco/Spanish rice dinner (a dinner I will cook over and over again because I'm proud I can make it!), I opened the pages of her Real Simple magazine. At first it was just something to browse while we chatted about life. Usually when I read magazines I like to start from the back and move my way forward. It really doesn't make much sense why I do it that way, but there is just something about magazine reading that makes me do it - probably because I look more at the pictures than read the articles, but this time my world was turned around. I glimpsed and then did a retake. Yes, my dream article:

Napping, a love story

If you know me, you know that I love to take naps. It is one of my hobbies. I've been made fun of for how much I nap. One of my most favorite gifts was a blanket someone gave me because they knew how much I loved to nap. Not only have I fallen in love with this blanket, but my family has as well, and it is now known as "Bear Blanket" because of its warmth and cuddibility. Thus, to have an article with the title "Napping, a love story" you bet I'm going to read it.

These words get me - get my obsession with naps:
A nap is not a nap without light. This is what distinguishes it from a good night's sleep. A nap is a stolen moment, not the natural culmination of the day. A nap is secret, illicit. It is sleeping during the day, and the day must be present and visible. There must be light ideally dappled in a garden or slanted through a window: soft and filtered and gentle. An afternoon sleep in a darkened room is not a nap, in my opinion. It is a migraine...not everything has to be useful, not everything has to lead to something more that sometimes, for no reason and with no purpose, you can just curl up on the couch, feel the soft breeze, and drift into a soft, delicious sleep that leads to nowhere in particular, and back again.

Naps are delicious. When light is filtering through the window, my bed is made (yep, I take naps on a made bed), and my bear blanket is waiting to be unfolded and wrapped around my body, I'm there and sucked into the beauty of a nap.

I loved this article so much that I ripped it out of the magazine so I could file it (for who knows what purpose) and I plan on taking a nap on Sunday.