Lucy Campbell Art via Pinterest
Sleep is the best meditation.~ Dalai Lama
A – Z Challenge – Day 26 (Better late than never)
Sleep, sleeplessness
Lately, sleep’s been fitful and hard to come by.
When I do sleep, I awaken every couple of hours, troubled by watery dreams I find myself stewing in. I dream of rivers and tides, slippery stones, the salty smell of the ocean, and empty houseboats where I’ve never lived.
I startle awake to find my dog peacefully snoring, her smooth back rising and falling as she, too, dreams.
We snuggle close and, again, I fall down the rabbit hole. I awaken two hours later to find more ghosts and angels fleeing my bedroom; I rub my eyes, uncertain of what I’ve seen, go to the kitchen for a glass of water.
Swirling, Sweeping Sleep
I am clearing out the sub-basement of my subconscious. All the crap I’ve kept over the years — all the suitcases and garbage bags full of detritus — is surging forth as this rising tide washes me from the inside out. The filth and the forgotten remnants of my life, swirl and float around me. The crescent moon calls me, knows my heart’s name.
We are living in times of transformation and radical change, coughing up dark nests and lost talismans.
Our sleep is changing us, hour by hour by hour.
We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep. ~ William Shakespeare
Cat Naps
After these fitful nights, I nap during the day – desperate to catch a few winks, as my father used to say. I wake up groggy – surrounded by purring cats – lolling and stretching across my warm feet. Their person is behaving like a cat. What could be better?
Together, we do the backstroke on the bed, traveling through the warp and weave of life.
It’s almost as though the night has become the time to plug into the collective unconscious and download a new paradigm.
Those who have compared our life to a dream were right…we were sleeping wake, and waking sleep. ~ Michel de Montaigne
This Waking Dream
We’ve been unconscious too long. Like Gulliver, we’ve slumbered while the world caught fire.
Now, the waters of reality surge through us – and connect us to our mother – this blue green orb, as she catapults through space and time at a million miles an hour.
Brutal mother-wisdom surfaces. It stings.
I sleep to find out where I’m headed next.
I fall into the mystery to find my way home.
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This is my final A – Z Challenge post. It has stretched me to do daily writing all month, but I am glad that I did it!
I will go back to posting new work on Saturdays starting tomorrow.
© 2014 Shavawn M. Berry All rights reserved
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