Rest Isn’t Something I Find. It’s Something I Choose.
Sometimes rest isn’t about doing nothing. Sometimes it’s baking bread before work, laughing at a child’s unexpected song, and looking forward to a camping weekend with a slightly questionable slushy in your hand.
For a long time, I thought rest meant stopping.
Lying on the sofa. Sleeping longer. Doing absolutely nothing.
But if I’m honest, that’s not really what my life looks like.
On the morning of our conversation, it was already around 33 degrees outside. Inside the kitchen it wasn’t much cooler. Before I even sat down to talk, lunch was cooked, salad was prepared, and the dough for tomorrow’s bread was already rising. My colleague was on holiday, so I was covering the work alone, and I had recently been discussing new personal goals with my manager.
It wasn’t exactly a peaceful morning.
And yet, I didn’t feel unhappy.
Busy doesn’t always mean unhappy. But it does make you think about why rest actually matters.
The pressure never completely disappears
Like many people, work has its own rhythm.
There are deadlines, meetings, goals and the feeling that there is always something else waiting. My manager is talking about retirement one day, new objectives the next, while I quietly hope that some changes might come a little sooner than expected.
Life keeps moving.
Home keeps moving too.
Sometimes it feels as though the to-do list can reproduce overnight.
The strange thing is that if I waited for life to become completely quiet before I rested, I would probably never rest at all.
Rest can sound like laughter
During our meeting we somehow wandered into talking about pets.
That quickly became spiders, rabbits, dogs, chickens and all sorts of animals.
At one point my daughter started singing in the background while we were talking about chickens. Suddenly our serious meeting had its own little soundtrack. Instead of interrupting everything, it became one of those ordinary family moments that simply makes you smile.
You can’t really schedule moments like that.
They just arrive.
Looking back, those unexpected interruptions might be some of the most restful moments of all, because they remind me that life doesn’t have to be perfectly organised to be enjoyable.
Looking forward matters too
By the end of the week I wasn’t dreaming about expensive holidays or luxury hotels.
I was simply excited to go camping.
The tent had already been put up at home to make sure everything still worked before we left. The weather promised plenty of sunshine, perhaps a little rain, and hopefully a chance to slow down.
Of course, camping also comes with its own traditions.
Mine apparently involves a slushy machine.
We ended up laughing about my favourite frozen drinks—especially the ones that are perhaps a little less innocent than they first appear. One favourite combines Malibu with pineapple or passion fruit. Another has a Dutch name that literally translates into something that made us joke it sounded like “dirty water.”
I’m fairly sure I’ll enjoy my “dirty” slushies this weekend.
Hopefully not enough to earn the headache we also laughed about.
Rest isn’t empty
When people hear the word rest, they often imagine silence.
For me, it can be bread dough rising on the counter.
Children singing in the next room.
Packing a tent.
Laughing over unusual English translations.
Sharing stories about pets.
Sitting outside with family while the evening finally cools down.
None of those moments remove the responsibilities waiting for me when Monday arrives.
But they remind me why those responsibilities are worth carrying.
I’ve realised that rest isn’t something that magically appears once everything is finished.
It’s something I have to choose, even while life is still wonderfully, noisily, imperfectly happening all around me.
Babette’s “Dirty Water” recipe
Bachwasser (translated as “creek water”)
Ingredients
- 1 bottle (0.7 liters) Doppelkorn (German grain spirit)
- 1 bottle (0.7 liters) Vodka
- 400 g Iced tea powder/granules (Zitronen-Eistee / lemon flavor is standard)
- 3 liters Still water
- 1 kg Ice cubes
Equipment
- 1 clean bucket (at least 5-liter capacity) or a very large cooking pot
Instructions
- Mix the base: Pour the 3 liters of still water into your clean bucket.
- Dissolve the powder: Add the 400 g of iced tea granules and stir thoroughly until completely dissolved.
- Add the alcohol: Pour in both the entire bottle of Doppelkorn and the bottle of vodka, then stir to combine.
- Chill: Dump in the ice cubes right before serving to keep the punch ice-cold. If desired, you can garnish the mix with fresh lemon slices.
