For as long as I can remember—starting with my first days in preschool and then in school—I recall being taught to stay constantly active. From simple things like doing cut-and-paste activities or coloring within the lines in preschool, to writing our names, letters, and numbers. Of course, these are useful skills that we should all learn from a young age, but it goes a little further than that.
Little by little, this taught us that the more things we can do well, the more valuable we are. Our grades and good-behavior points are tied to a sense of reward for the grades we receive, and that’s fine because that’s how the educational system works. However, somehow this idea became ingrained in our minds—or at least in mine—that I must always be doing something in order to earn approval.
Ever since then—ever since we were children—we’ve learned that we must always find ways to do things to validate the fact that we exist, and that’s it. Whether it’s trying to reach a goal or even keeping the house perfectly organized and clean at all times. In everything we do, we have this mindset that if we waste time doing nothing, then in some way we’re failing ourselves and our lives.
But recently I was looking at a post on social media that contained a very simple phrase that might have gone unnoticed, but for some reason caught my attention. It said, “If the only reason your body can rest is because it’s sick, then whenever you need rest, you’re going to get sick.” Yes, indeed—it’s when we’re sick that we can finally get a few days’ respite from the real world.
This phrase made me think a lot about the time I devote to that, and I must admit that no one teaches better lessons about rest and the time spent simply existing than nature itself. I’ve told you many times about my kittens and how they’ve helped me so much emotionally, but they’ve also taught me lessons—one of them about rest.
The kittens are very active in the early morning hours, especially when it’s not quite dawn yet. In fact, they have a habit of waking me up at five in the morning so I’ll open the back patio door for them, and they play out there for quite a while—it’s basically their daily routine. But something else that surprises me about their routine is that, after a certain time—once they’ve finished their activities—they always come back inside to take a break.
Sometimes, while I’m on the computer or running some errands, they’ll curl up on my legs to sleep and stay there for quite a while while I go about my business, just resting. And yes, this happens every day. They take their time to sleep for a while—sometimes a little longer than they should—and then wake up feeling fully recharged to continue their activities: playing with whatever objects they can find, chasing away the neighborhood cats that climb onto the roof, and so on.
The thing is, nature—in everything we see—shows us that taking a break is absolutely essential and that, when we do, the world doesn’t end. There have been times when I’ve had to just sit there because my kittens are asleep on my lap, and it simply helped me rest for a while, just being in the moment, just as they are right then. The truth is, it helps a lot because it lets you clear your mind so you can carry on afterward.
On the other hand, these past few days I’ve also been keeping an eye on a little plant that grew right there in my backyard. The little plant took its time growing, and after a while, its flowers started to bloom, followed by the chili peppers. The truth is, sometimes I’d go out to check if the chili peppers were ready to finally harvest them, but they weren’t. This process took at least four or five weeks—maybe a few days more—and I had to be patient because, honestly, there was nothing else I could do.
After that time, the chili peppers were finally ready. But what happened after I picked them all and harvested them? Nothing. Now the plant is taking its time to rest and recover for the next harvest. Several days have passed since then—several weeks, in fact—and every day when I go to water it or check to see if it has any flowers or anything else, the truth is, no, it’s simply taking its rest so it can bear fruit again later, which it’s 100 percent certain to do.
So, thinking about this little chili plant that a few days ago gave me a part of itself so I could prepare a delicious, well-seasoned meal, I realize that sometimes, to bear good fruit, we need to take some time to rest. Even though we have this idea deeply ingrained in our minds that we must justify our very existence through countless actions, the simple act of breathing and getting up every day to give our best is justification enough.
The world isn’t going to end just because we take a few hours—or even days—to recharge and carry on with the grueling routine of adult life. Simply taking a break to breathe—and even to enjoy our existence, our surroundings, and the things we hold dear because they make us feel alive—will actually help us be much more productive and better equipped to handle the situations that inevitably arise time and again. And yes, nature always teaches us so many lessons; we just have to look closely to learn from them.
-Content entirely of my authorship and inspiration. -Original text in Spanish, translated at DeepL. -Personal photographs, taken with my Huawei p30 Lite Phone. -Banners designed in Canva Pro.
