The Bed.

The Bed

Have you ever really thought about your bed? No, really. It’s not surprising that we have all been spending a lot more time in our homes and thus, a lot more time in our beds. Well, maybe not a lot more time in our beds. I guess it depends on the person.

Me? Well, I love my bed. It offers a quiet calm. A soothing comfort that can only come from stretching out under the cool sheets and soft pillows that greet my ever-tired body. It truly is my place to relax, think, read, love, and just be. What could be better?

Now, I do want to differentiate the terms “bed” vs. “mattress”. A mattress serves function. Sleep, body support and sex. Sometimes it squeaks and pokes you in all the wrong places. Sometimes it’s just a place to rest your head until you land in your favorite place of comfort. I kind of think of mattress as the efficiency model of sleep. It serves a purpose, gets the job done but doesn’t really stick with ya.

A bed is a symbol of your life. Your home. Your comfort. It’s the best place to lay your head, relax for the first time all day. It’s your haven when you are at your whits end and your little piece of comfort at the end of a stressful day. It’s a place of reckless abandon for you and the one that you love (or lust). It’s a place of peace when you have just had enough of the world.

It’s where you feed your love affair. Where you lounge away a weekend morning with a hot cup of coffee. It’s where you land after a long day of flight delays after that work trip that you knew was not going to end well. It’s where you lay your head after one too many drinks at the bar where you said you were only “going to have one”.

It’s where you lay awake, thinking of your latest heartbreak. How could they hurt you so much? How could they break what was love’s strongest bond? So, you hug your pillows tight, let the tears stream down and cry yourself to sleep.

It’s the place where you and the love of your life lay each day. Most times in love and peace. Sometimes in frustration and exhaustion.

It’s where you lay still in the night and feel your baby gently (or not so gently) kick you for the first time. It’s where you lay dreaming of the days to come and where you worry about if the baby will be ok.

It’s the place where you bring baby to finally lay beside you. So, you gently put her in her own bed beside you, while you lay with eyes fully open hearing every breath, every move, every heartbeat that she has, wondering if she is safe and ok. You wonder this because the last time you felt safe with her was when you lay in your bed, feeling her move within your belly.

The bed is where you lay when you are exhausted with whatever the day has brought you - good, bad, indifferent. Your bed is there to offer you respite from an ever-changing world. To welcome you when you are sick, grumpy, happy, drunk, in love, or otherwise confused as to what the next day will hold.

So, take a good look at the bed that you have made. It’s so much more than a mattress. It holds you, your heart, your mind, your secrets and your dreams.