Do the Trees Sleep?

I wonder sometimes
if the trees sleep.

Not like I do.
I love my bed.
I love getting into it at night,
pulling up the covers,
and letting the day be over.

But surely
the trees know something
about this too.

At dusk
the light changes.
The birds settle in.
The leaves seem quieter.

Even Wendy the Willow
looks different at night,
her long branches hanging down
as if she too knows:

Enough for today.

Nothing in nature
is expected
to keep going all the time.

And yet we humans!
Good Goddess.

Sometimes I bring
the whole damn day
into bed with me.

The conversation.
The email I forgot.
Tomorrow.
Something I said.
Something I should have said.

Meanwhile my bed is saying,
Jayne, enough already.

Sleep is important to me.
I love sleeping.
I love dreaming.
I love waking early
after a good night’s sleep
and feeling the world
begin again. At 5 am!

The body knows
what the busy mind forgets:

we need to stop.

The tree doesn’t apologize
for December.

It doesn’t stand naked
in February thinking,

I really should be doing more.

It rests.

Maybe this is part
of cultivating joy too.

Knowing when enough
is enough.

Leaving something unfinished.

Turning off the light.

Trusting that the world
can manage without me
for eight hours.

A mindful life
can’t only be about
being awake.

So tonight
I don’t need to become
more like a tree.

Maybe I already am one.

I will get into the bed I love,
pull up the covers,
let the day fall away,

and sleep.

Tomorrow
Wendy and I
can begin again.

Love,
Jayne