It’s National Make Your Bed Day and for us Leftat50’s, it’s time to erase and replace any bad memories associated with made or unmade beds. This is a holiday I never cared about until I ditched the old, himless bed and bought myself a new, organic cotton bed. Heaven.
I love it sooo much. It doesn’t make me boiling hot like my old mattress. Of course that may have been because I was boiling mad, waiting for the sound of the garage door. Picturing the unmade bed he had just created with someone half my age.
The new bed could maybe use some sprucing up. New sheets perhaps, but that’s such an investment that I have to live with for soooo long. ( It’s almost like a marriage!) I’m really not into that notion these days. Not due to bitterness, just because of the joy I feel waking up in my spring-free cotton bed with limited aches and pains.
They are the normal pains of aging bones, not the emotional heartache of betrayal, so it’s easy to walk it off as I pad my way to the coffee maker where I brew a pot of nice, weak coffee just the way I like it!
A few years ago, still adjusting to my new life, I rarely made my bed. It’s weird. When I was part of a couple, it seemed so important to make the bed. And then once there was no one around to see my bed, I left it unmade. I didn’t care. There was just tiny me in an Eastern King bed! I slept on my same side of the bed as I had when I was in a couple. Now I could move to the center and take up the entire darn bed and I didn’t take advantage of it!
The middle spot of the bed didn’t feel right in my mind. Until I actually experienced it. Scooting over from the edge, I felt myself deliciously sink ever so slightly into the realization that I could spread out. I could stretch my arms and legs as far apart as was comfortable. I could TAKE UP SPACE!
This was not just a sleep lesson, it became a life lesson. I can take up space. I deserve to take up as much real estate as I want. My bed is my castle and I am the queen of the remote, the glass of ice water on the nightstand, and the rumpled “O” magazine under it. This is my kingdom of fret-free slumber.
This is my new life. You know the expressions, “You made your bed, now lay in it?” It’s supposed to be mean. But to me it is glorious. I’m happy to pull the sheets to the headboard and smooth out a few creases. Ecstatic to pile up wayyy too many fancy looking pillows of all sizes on top of it with no man asking me, “Why do we need all those pillows we don’t use on top of the bed all the time?”
Because ladies love pillows dummy. We like things to be nice. Because we are nice. We are good. And kind and we smell nice and love our scented lotions that we have too many of on the nightstand.
But I don’t. Because now I love my lived in bed. It’s been more than a few years since I considered it a “marital bed.” It’s now just mine. I try to keep it nice so I can try and get the eight hours and truly feel refreshed. And when I get up, I pull those covers over the bed and start my day. My new orderly day that starts with breakfast and ends with a little encouragement from my latest issue of “O”. And it’s nice. It’s nice because there’s no more drama. It’s nice because my bed no longer symbolizes heartache or rejection.
Does your bedroom feel like a place of comfort? Winter is a good time to try and get back to hibernation. Not just of sleep but for new life-ideas. I’m glad I got back to myself and no longer dread the night or feel lost in the morning.
I hope you are appreciating the bed you lay in. Cause the expression “You’ve made your bed, now lay in it,” doesn’t have to have a negative connotation. It can have a hopeful one. It can mean the end of restless nights and new days and the end of judging yourself. Today of all days, make your bed. And I hope you lie in it. You deserve a good night’s rest and a lovely day. No hospital corners required.
We all go through major life transitions when relationships end… Through this website, I will share my thoughts as I walk the path of “New-Self” discovery. It doesn’t matter which side of 50 you are on. The real question is, Are you ready to live life? To forge a Path of Your Own Making (For a change!)? Then stop dwelling over the What-Might-Have-Beens and join me. Share your thoughts here, comment on mine, and let’s do this together!