deep breaths for everybody

[mrissa]

I am trying not to over-interpret/over-ascribe. But.

Yesterday I simply did not have the time or the physical energy to have a workout. It was a day with a steady bit in it, and I became hungry like a normal person when dinnertime rolled around, without spending an hour and a half on the bike to cut through the nausea. (Because no vertigo for six hours meant no nausea.) And the peasants rejoiced etc.

Today has been so much easier in so many ways. I slept better. I had an hour and a half workout, and that was much easier. This is not surprising. Bodies need rest from time to time. This is known. I haven't been working out for 1.5-2 hours daily because I think it's the best thing for a person, I've been doing it because it's how I can eat, and I am firmly of the opinion that people need to eat. (Even if they don't need to eat where we had dinner. But that's the previous entry.)

I also have two new stories coming along, and I am switching from frame to frame trying to keep up with idea notes on both of them. (Edited to add: Um. Three.) I have been a bit short on new stories for awhile now. I know the shape of both of these. I don't want to say that it has to be connected. But...minds are not separable from bodies, either. Both need rest. Being really physically exhausted and feeling like I'm fighting for just the normal things in life may not, it turns out, be the most conducive thing ever to creative work.

I'm not committing that I will always use my steady days to skip workouts; clearly that's the wrong solution for the long-term outcome for which we devoutly hope, that is, that all my days will become steady days. But it seemed worth reminding myself, and possibly some of you could use the reminder as well: taking a rest does not make you lazy or bad. It does not mean you lack dedication or commitment or passion or artistic/intellectual rigor. It means you are a human, and humans need rest as well as work, down as well as up, dark as well as light. And there is nothing wrong with that, and something valuable in remembering it.

(The only thing is, I wrote seagrit "The Witch's Second Daughter," and I hope it's not too confusing that I'm now writing "The Witch's Second." I don't intend to also write "The Witch's" and "The." I'd say you never know, but that's wrong, sometimes you know. At least I do.)

Comments

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

It is an excellent thing to be reminded of.

I nap in the evening, occasionally. Hard hour-plus naps. Not often, and when I do I usually wake up and think, "Man, what a waste of time!"

Lately, I have been trying to think instead, "I must have really needed that."

[pameladean]

Oh, hooray for rest!

I have far too easy a time resting, myself; it's not remaining at rest that's the problem. But your lesson is a salubrious one just the same.

P.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Inertia is not supposed to be directional, but in people it is.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

It's not so completely outside the bounds of modern understanding of these things that thinking the state of your body may affect the state of your mind that thinking it should cause you to doubt yourself.

Hmmm; I probably shouldn't have tried to get it all into one sentence, or something. Anyway, hooray for steady time, hooray for some eating, hooray for some recovery time, hooray for brains!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Possibly it's trying to get it all into one sentence that leaves me not clear on where you're going with the first bit of this comment, or possibly there's some other reason.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Well, I say huzzah for today!

[zalena.livejournal.com]

I mis-read your title as, "The Sea Witch's Daughter" and now I very much want to read the story that goes with that title.

[aedifica]

Your parenthetical last paragraph made me laugh. Thank you!

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I didn't know witches fought duels! What a good story that will be. Heh.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

This witch's second is not herself a witch, but rather a dog breeder. She thinks of herself as accustomed to a certain amount of muck but is astonished, absolutely astonished at what is required of a witch's second.

[wild-irises.livejournal.com]

Hooray for steady days!

You make me think of "The Island of Dr. Death," "The Death of Dr. Island," and "The Doctor of Death Island." And perhaps that's what you were thinking of ...

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I am not very good at believing this. But it doesn't make you any less right.

[intrepida.livejournal.com]

May your steady days only increase.

The lesson about rest is wisdom indeed, even if it is wisdom I find it hard to follow.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

It worked for Gene Wolfe. The title thing, that is, not the exercising thing. I have no opinions about the exercising thing except to agree that holistic is good, mens sana in corpore sano etc.

[redbird]

Resting is good, and being able to rest is better.

I don't think you are over-interpreting or over-ascribing.

[thoughtdancer.livejournal.com]

Got to be a story for "The" already out there... though I'm too lazy to Google it.

And good on getting well-er....