Take time for a nap

My fairly normal day begins between 5:30 and 6 AM with an hour of meditation. related reading ( on Buddhism at the moment ) and prayer.  This is followed bout 45 min of weight lifting and other exercises – another skirmish in the eventually losing war to keep my relentlessly aging physical being fully operational.  The working day normally ends between 8 and 8:30 with attempts to dispatch at least the most urgent of the day’s email accumulations.  I then return to my apartment for a late dinner, with physical and psychic resources almost fully exhausted.

Last Friday night, the last email I opened was a poem from my uniquely gifted younger sister.  In the genetic lottery, she drew not only with my father’s poetic talents, intellect and equable temperament, but also my mother’s artistic talents.  The poem was entitled….

A QUESTION ANSWERED

Is it wrong to nap on a summer’s day

When the sun is out and the world’s at play?

When the world is sunk in a sea of gloom

Is it wrong to take to my cozy room?

When tomorrow’s cares are too hard to face

Is a featherbed such a dreadful place?

If to strive and drudge means to court a seizure,

Dare the drudge be judge of my mode of leisure?

 

If a tireless worker’s what you want,

Please don’t contact me, I’ll be en couchant!

You be rapt with awe at Herculean feats!

I’ll be wrapped up in my flannel sheets.

Praise the work ethic of a better man

But if you seek me, I’m on my divan.

Praise my sister for her industry

I’ll applaud her prone from my silk settee.

When they’re dead on their feet

And their strength has been sapped,

And I m fresh and I’m sweet,

You will know that I’ve napped!