Dear Reader:

The title quote for today’s blog is one that many of you probably recognize…especially if you were/are a Simon and Garfunkel fan, like myself.

It is the opening lines in the popular song –  The Sound of Silence...made even more popular by the (quite memorable) movie The Graduate. (Here is a three minute video clip from the movie…featuring The Sound of Silence.)

The Graduate – The Sound Of Silence (Soundtrack) – YouTube

The first line (of the lyrics) says:

“Hello darkness, my old friend…I’ve come to talk to you again.”

How many times have we talked to the darkness…our old friend? Except….for most of us….darkness, in the form of insomnia, becomes more of an enemy than a friend.

Like almost everyone I know…these nights appear, with no warning, to play games with our minds. And even if we are too tired to play…we find ourselves throwing the dice in the game called “What If?” The problem with this game is ….no one wins…except insomnia.

As I would rock Jakie these past couple of days in his darkened nursery I would find myself so-o-o sleepy… I couldn’t keep my own eyes open. It was that wonderful carefree drowsiness from childhood that has eluded me since adulthood. No worries or concerns…just peace…and trust…in the gift of sleep.

I would put the sleeping Jakie in his crib and close the door…that is when it happened. Instead of going to the sofa or bedroom and falling asleep in this wonderful drowsiness of a childhood-like trance….I would pop awake…shake my head….and think about everything I could get done while the baby slept.

Babies and little children can fall asleep anywhere….even during an Easter Egg Hunt.

But not me…if I start to feel drowsy during the day…instead of giving into this natural cycle of life…I fight it…so I will sleep during the night. Stupid reasoning actually…since when I have given in…I actually find myself sleeping better that night too.

I don’t know how any of our Presidents have managed to get any sleep in the White House. I think I would stay awake for four years…scared of all the “What if’s” that could happen  any minute anywhere around the world…and they usually do sooner or later.

But, even for Presidents..most of what man worries about never comes to fruition…

Jefferson: “How much pain has cost us the evils which have never happened.”

Coolidge: “If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.”

It is true. We worry about things that exist only in our minds as possibilities…not certain realities.

We really have to laugh at ourselves for our predicament of insomnia most of the time…as seen in the following quote:

Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, “Where have I gone wrong?” Then a voice says to me, “This is going to take more than one night…you might as well get some sleep.”

-Charles Schulz-

Our monsters from childhood (that hid under the bed or in the closet once upon a time) continue to come out at night for adults and they, too, have all grown up…bigger and “badder.” Sometimes…it is confronting our very souls that scare us the most.

“In a real dark night of the soul it is always three o’clock in the morning.“

Scott Fitzgerald

By morning…all the monsters are gone…leaving us feeling as embarrassed as our child counterparts for all the “fuss.”

“I realize that from the cradle up I have been like the rest of the race-never quite sane in the night.”

-Mark Twain-

In modern society…one of the worst monsters is “over-thinking”…..best described in this quote by the actor Anthony Hopkins.

“We are dying from overthinking! We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything! THINK THINK THINK…..tick tock tick tock. Don’t we realize the human mind is not the final answer?”

When I have the occasional sleepless night…I have learned to get up and do something…just don’t lie there. In fact some of my best blogs have been written in the wee hours of the morning. My mind seems sharper and my feelings deeper than the “surface” exposure during the day.

“Nighttime is really the best time to work. All the ideas are there to be yours…because everyone else is asleep.”

-Catherine O’Hara-

I used to catch up on emails on sleepless nights… but I would get too many replies asking me what I was doing up at 3 in the morning….too much trouble to do double correspondence.

…………………………………………

So until tomorrow….When we can’t sleep…Remind us Father to trust you to help us with our problems. Pry the reins off our hands, help us down off the horse, and tuck us into bed with a promise and a kiss to protect us and love us forever.

“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh

* Update on the garden: I could hardly wait to see my garden yesterday morning….here are the latest smiling faces…”Welcome my Pretties”!

The title picture is a photo I took of this little book that I got at Simple to Sublime. I use it to jot down ideas wherever I go….there are two things I must have at all times and that is a camera (iphone) and notepad. This book contains a quote (the ones used today are all in this book and more) and then a page beside the quote for reflection.

What is wrong with us…when we get to be “adults?” I have come to the conclusion that I act like an idiot. Here I am retired and have all the time to nap like a child…but instead I manage to add more items to my “to do” list…thus knocking out the time for a pleasurable catnap.