Holiday Break: A Lesson from the Animals

Beringer Tousley demonstrates lolling, ca. 2010

A wonderful mid-holiday-season message for all of us:

. . . You are a good person doing the best you can. So, remember that new book under the Christmas tree? Pick it up and start reading. Those music CDs in your stocking? Borrow your daughter’s portable player, close your eyes and listen for a while. Unwrap those bath salts and scented soaps, and claim the tub for a quiet soak.

Humans are the only creatures who are too hard on themselves. Dogs loll. Birds roost. When cats get tired, they sleep; when they’re hungry, they eat.  Mostly, they lie in the sun and yawn. There’s a lesson there.

Next week, we enter the New Year. Life will just keep getting faster and faster as our lives become shorter and shorter. In this brief intermission, as the world waits for the next act, take time to stand still, lie down, nap. You’ve earned it.

— Tad Bartimus, in The Arizona Republic, December 29, 1999