All through the night

Teaching theory is full of the importance of creating and sticking to routines. We're creatures of habit and there's comfort in the familiar. It's simplified, but you get the gist of it. The truth of this has hit home for me in the past couple of weeks as I realize more and more of my own routines.

The most embedded, most comforting routine? Bedtime. It's 10:50 now and I most likely won't be asleep for another hour. Never mind that I'm pretty exhausted. The bedtime ritual takes me an hour. (And some friends already mock me for it.) I only recently connected that each of the parts of the ritual go back to the routine my parents first established for me, not just when I was little, but really when I was a baby.

1. Get clean. Shower. Bath. Brush teeth. Whatever. Connection obvious.
2. Write in journal. I had a journal but didn't write on a regular basis until after I left home. Before then, bedtime officially started when I debriefed the day with whichever parent was putting me down that night. Get out all the feelings that needed to be sorted through in order to rest well.
3. Bible and prayer time. Though I don't memorize verses or prayers the same way I sometimes did when I was at home.
4. Read something completely nonrelated to school. Short stories. Long fiction. Entertaining nonfiction. (Nothing too serious.) This is critical for me and the part that I only recently connected to the bedtime stories my parents read when I was an infant.
5. Lullabye. Actually, this is the one part that I omit most nights here. Though it may be my favorite part. Mom and Dad sang to me until I graduated high school. (When I was little there were multiple lullabyes and each birthday, you're a bit older one less song. Only they never stopped that last song. I think the time meant too much to all of us to consider it.) I definitely will hum a song to myself. Or play my lullabye cd. Or the lullabye playlist on my computer. Because it is so ingrained for me, whenever I hear someone's having trouble sleeping, I'll offer lullabyes. It's my favorite part of bedtime, but the part that translates least well to being on my own.
   

Sorry this is rambly. I should go back and edit. But for now, I'm just going to post and get into that ritual.