Lessons on rest from seagulls.

Here on the south coast of England we’ve been having a steady serving of high winds. Beach living is fabulous, but walking your dog in the open against 25 or 35 mph winds every day is hard work. Alfred, my big strong Old English Sheepdog, uses me as a windbreak! Cheeky! I usually start out walking into the wind so that I have it at my back all the way home. It was really gusty today and when I turned around I realised how much it had been impairing my breathing. As I gulped air at my own pace I noticed the birds beside me. On days like this you will notice the seagulls and the crows who live at the beach nested down on ground. They only move if they don’t feel safe from the dogs or other things and have to relaunch themselves into the turbulent air. Honestly if you are paying attention you notice how much time birds actually spend on the ground laying down. But what became clear to me today was how even the seagulls know when it’s time to rest. They haven’t constructed a society or an interior dialogue that says there is no time to rest. That they must be aloft fighting it out right now or everything will fall apart. When the air is flowing like that they hunker down and wait it out. Why don’t we do more of that? Why are we so comfortable with struggling onwards? Rest has become a very important word to me. It’s something I’m teaching myself to do and something I long to provide others. One of the things I love about the feedback I get on my book over and over is “it made me sigh.” May you find even a breath of rest today. Lots of love, Susie