“Take rest; a field that has rested gives a beautiful crop.”
― Ovid
rest
Photo Exhibit: As We Rise
Over the past few weeks, I’ve posted about my day trip to Salem. Strolling around the city during the holiday season and enjoying a local cafe.
The reason for the trip was to see the photography exhibit, As We Rise, before it left the Peabody Essex Museum. It was wonderful and I’m so glad that I got to see it before it ended on December 31st. The description of the exhibit on the website truly intrigued me.
“Explore Black identity through a compelling compilation of photographs from African diasporic culture. Drawn from Dr. Kenneth Montague’s Wedge Collection in Toronto, a Black-owned collection dedicated to artists of African descent, As We Rise looks at the myriad experiences of Black life through the lenses of community, identity and power.
Organized by Aperture, New York, the exhibition features more than 100 works by Black artists from Canada, the Caribbean, Great Britain, the United States and South America, as well as throughout the African continent. Black subjects depicted by Black photographers are presented as they wish to be seen , recognizing the complex strength, beauty and vulnerability of Black life.”
The exhibit shows ordinary Black people living their lives and reminded me of my own family photos. The exhibit acknowledges the importance of these pictures. Yes, we as a people have been through a lot. There has been struggle. And the struggle continues.
But we are just like any other people. We live our daily lives and have families and friends. We take pride in our work.
We enjoy the simple things and glamour. We are bold and beautiful.
It feels wonderful to see these people just being themselves and living their lives, just like me. It means something to see oneself, depicted in this way. It means something to see oneself portrayed at all. To show that we existed and continue to exist. And that we will exist.
I remember as a kid watching TV shows like Star Trek and being happy that there were Black people in the future. To a certain extent, it’s silly. It wasn’t real. Even so, it mattered.
The text in the picture above, “Identity as Seeing Ourselves” resonates with me in a similar way.
“These photographs are not only about seeing ourselves and our place in the world, but also picturing where we are going.”
This picture above, which represents refusal, is quite interesting. Not something I would display at home. But I like the idea of us as a people being able to have control over whether we are seen or not and how we choose to be seen.
And last, but not least, As We Rise shows Black people at rest and leisure. I loved this portion so much! What’s the point of life if not to enjoy ourselves and relax at least some of the time? Have we not toiled enough?!
An Instagram post by The Nap Ministry for the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. says it best.
“The teachings of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. have been a North Star in my life since I was in elementary school and obsessively wrote every paper for any class on him until college. I’ve read everything he has written and his work grounds my ethos as a Black Liberation Theologian. As the country honors his legacy and celebrates his birthday, I am deep in meditation about leisure for Black People.
Leisure and the right to simply exist without the constant weight of having to be a tool for production is something Black people have been denied for centuries. It is our divine right to simply be and embody leisure as a human right. These photos of MLK, Jr. on vacation in Jamaica in 1965 are a balm and deep breathing. Radical inspiration for our rest practices. We Will Rest!!”
Sleep as Self-Care + Changing Seasons
Can you believe Daylight Savings Time ended a week ago already? I took advantage of that extra hour to do some fall cleaning and also get some good sleep. And the more I read about sleep, the more important I realize it is. Rest is our foundation.
The change of seasons is the perfect time to reflect on this. We can’t have the beauty of fall, spring and summer without the rest provided by winter. It makes sense that Halloween and the Day of the Dead are celebrated at this time of year. Nature itself is in that liminal space between life and death and we can’t help but feel that change too.
It’s still fall. But with the start of November and so little sunlight, it feels like we are in the winter season. And after my year of examining the seasons, I’m doing my best to shed resistance and fall into winter gracefully.
Peak fall has the ground carpeted with red, orange and so much gold. They shimmer in the sunlight. The trees and ground look magical and otherworldly. Nature is preparing us for winter with an extra burst of beauty. 
This time of year provides a cue for rest and turning inward. Many animals are hibernating or at least preparing for it. Since we humans are part of nature as well, we can think about how our lives might adjust with the cold weather.
It’s a time for the comfort of warm blankets, hot drinks and candle light. For me, these colder months are also about coziness. Danish culture calls it hygge, and I am all for it. I can’t fight the weather, so I’ll try and appreciate the best of what it brings.
This winter break is something we can cultivate within ourselves. Each day is like a mini-year, where our sleep is the winter. Resting for the renewal of spring and summer during the busiest parts of our day. The end of the day, before we sleep again, is autumn.
Recent research says that deep sleep may rid the brain of toxins that lead to Alzheimer’s. Sleep disruption and deprivation is bad for our health. Yet, it seems like getting enough sleep is a major problem for many if not most people. Sleep scientist Matthew Walker gives some insight.
“We have stigmatised sleep with the label of laziness. We want to seem busy, and one way we express that is by proclaiming how little sleep we’re getting. It’s a badge of honour. When I give lectures, people will wait behind until there is no one around and then tell me quietly: ‘I seem to be one of those people who need eight or nine hours’ sleep.’ It’s embarrassing to say it in public. They would rather wait 45 minutes for the confessional. They’re convinced that they’re abnormal, and why wouldn’t they be? We chastise people for sleeping what are, after all, only sufficient amounts. We think of them as slothful. No one would look at an infant baby asleep, and say ‘What a lazy baby!’ We know sleeping is non-negotiable for a baby. But that notion is quickly abandoned [as we grow up]. Humans are the only species that deliberately deprive themselves of sleep for no apparent reason.” In case you’re wondering, the number of people who can survive on five hours of sleep or less without any impairment, expressed as a percent of the population and rounded to a whole number, is zero.
Those people, who tell us that they do fine with hardly any sleep. They are lying. To themselves. And to the rest of us. They are risking their health. If they are driving or doing something similar, they may be risking the lives of others as well.
We need sleep. We need rest. We need winter. One of the best ways to take care of ourselves is so basic. This self-care is literally to do nothing. So this season, it’s time to make a change.
