The other day, in the late afternoon, I suddenly got tired.
Not sleepy, or spent from physical activity. It was more of a mental and emotional blue screen, like when a computer suddenly decides that it’s shutting down, whether you like it or not. My brain was not accepting any new input. I was unable to make decisions, form sentences, or even conjure up emotions.
I’m a mentally healthy person with a happy family and stable employment, and I count myself lucky for those things. I hope you can claim the same. But counting one’s proverbial blessings doesn’t stop life from being exhausting. And it’s easy to convince yourself that you can’t take a time out, because work needs doing or meals need cooking or whatever. But when our bodies speak up to let us know they need rest, we need to listen.
So what do you do when your internal computer gets the blue screen? Same as you would with an actual computer: turn it off. Turn it on.
Sleep.
Getting a good sleep doesn’t fix everything, but it’s a good first step. Force quit all your mental programs. Restart. Maybe install an update.
And as you’re getting into your most comfortable PJs, take a listen to Toronto’s Brady Kendall, aka Alaskan Tapes, who makes music perfectly calibrated for a mental restart.
What makes this a beautiful song:
1. The drums. These are the most subdued drums you’re likely to hear. The cymbals almost sound like someone shushing a baby to sleep.
2. The repeated melody on the guitar is the “Westminster Quarters” – the tune that the bells of Westminster (Big Ben) chime out on the hour. Incidentally, those famous bells rang for the first time just this past New Year’s, after four years of silence during an extensive renovation. See? If Big Ben is allowed to sleep every once in a while, so are you.
3. As Kendall plays the Big Ben melody, he doesn’t mute the strings he’s not playing. The result is that as his fingers leave one guitar string for another, the string he’s leaving rings out on a note that is conspicuously not in the same key as the song. Normally, this would sound sloppy. But to me, it sounds sleepy. I can almost imagine him reclining on his couch, idly playing the guitar while looking up at the slowly rotating ceiling fan.
Recommended listening activity:
Turning off your alarm.