Week 21. Rest and Restoration

Some themes will come up a few times during the year but if you know the Reads already, you better believe that I’ll try to harp on them differently every time as life leads to them through various scenic routes each time.

The word “rest” usually comes up in contrast after long, hard periods and most of the time refers to sleep and restoration by virtue of doing nothing. For me it encompasis much more than that and as I’ve encountered in my life, to every person this word has a slightly different meaning and taste. For some it’s sweet and pleasurable, for others it’s bitter and guilt inducing. If you, just so happen to be, the latter, I have a mental practice for you. This week I was exploring new places and when I came across an old architectural marvel, I remembered about all the frescoes and mosaics of old times that were created centuries ago and restored many times afterwards (some more than others). When a painting or a sculpture endures many hits, layers of dust and all other tribulations that come with this life, they get repaired, restored. Imagine for a second that you are this precious painting, a sculpture, a piece of art that has scratches, some bumps here and there. Now also imagine yourself being a restorer at a museum, observing all the cracks and getting excited to repair them, planning the tools and materials needed to fix the indentations. The conservator who loves their job would never ask the art object: “what have you done to contribute to society so that I should fix you now”, or something like: “this is such a waste of time. It could go another two hundred years without fixing. It has to get itself together, these cracks are not a big deal”. The conservation professional would lovingly take care of the precious object, probably imagining what it got through and valuing the piece even more. Just like that you can look at resting as an act of lovingly restoring the precious pieces of yourself and integrating them back into the fabric of your life, regardless if it feels like that sometimes this piece of art fell short of expectations or was viewed by others as less valuable, in the restorer’s eyes, it’s still a precious piece of art worth treasuring no matter what.

Have a week full of restored treasures.