Sleeping Through the Night

I remember back in the days, Before, when I treasured Sleep. This could be because I never got enough. This probably was because I was busy. I was married, with 3 growing boys, a demanding job that required well beyond the normal 40 hours. I was on call every night starting at midnight plus one 24 hour day every other weekend. This was back in the days of pagers. Do you remember them? They hung on your side and buzzed whenever you tried to sleep. They required getting out of my nice warm bed and going to work or worse yet, driving somewhere to fix a machine. That ended my night’s sleep. Plus, I had to go work regardless. I did that 13 years at one dealership and 8 at another. This was before I quit being the mechanic and became the self-educated I.T. professional for 24 years that overwhelms me today. Or was. I am now retired, mostly. I retired for a week last year but did not care for it. I currently support my wife’s business doing accounting and web support. But my main job now is The Gym. I have coped with life by being a gym junkie for 50 years but that is a different story. Back to sleep.

Old people have problems with sleep. They either cannot get to sleep (Sally’s insomnia) or they have large holes in the middle of the night like I do. I can go to sleep at 8:00 PM just fine but my eyeballs pop open around midnight for 1 to 3 hours.

Last night I woke up at 11 and read for an hour or so and discovered Sally had not even been to sleep yet. She was sitting downstairs in her rocker, disconsolate. That is when I had my epiphany. I told her that I was going out to sit on the screen porch attached to my Bunkhouse and listen to the quiet that is the Chequamegon at 1:00 AM. I invited her to come along. She agreed. The dogs were concerned but came along as well.

Now to the metaphysical part. If you have read any of these posts, then you are aware that I do not feel empowered. I have no control over my destiny. I am on this ride until I ain’t. I am cool with that. I am at peace with my powerlessness. In fact, I much prefer this to what I see happening to humanity. They fear the powerlessness I embrace and it makes them miserable, mean, unsympathetic and frankly, makes me avoid them; most of them for sure.

By sitting, without conversation, with the one person I chose to associate with, in the utter quiet, in the dark,

I Become a Part of It All.

Thanks to jwvein for the use of Forest Dark Magic