And then at some point late, late, late at night, say just a bit before dawn…

Posted on by Live & Learn

the most important°

And then one student said that happiness is what happens when you go to bed on the hottest night of the summer, a night so hot you can’t even wear a tee-shirt and you sleep on top of the sheets instead of under them, although try to sleep is probably more accurate. And then at some point late, late, late at night, say just a bit before dawn, the heat finally breaks and the night turns into cool and when you briefly wake up, you notice that you’re almost chilly, and in your groggy, half-consciousness, you reach over and pull the sheet around you and just that flimsy sheet makes it warm enough and you drift back off into a deep sleep. And it’s that reaching, that gesture, that reflex we have to pull what’s warm – whether it’s something or someone – toward us, that feeling we get when we do that, that feeling of being safe in the world and ready for sleep, that’s happiness.

– Paul Schmidtberger, Design Flaws of the Human Condition

Source: Quote – Petrichour. Artwork: the most important° by Kerstin Kuntze

19 thoughts on “And then at some point late, late, late at night, say just a bit before dawn…”

  4. I’m afraid few people get to have this experience any more, at least in the developed world, since if they are in the climate for it, they are probably running an air conditioner.

  8. I like the piece…”that reflex we have to pull” for the comfort… // we are in for a scorcher of a weekend (July weather, early)…the window a/c has been in use in the kitchen window for a week and last night was sultry so thankfully the a/c unit tease will no longer be…just sitting there all week on the shelf outside of the bedroom window screen, taunting// when I buy more padding for the garden bed I am sleeping outside!

      1. 95 +, a spot south of us hit 105 yesterday! This is so not the seasonal norm…last year we had I think 13 days over 90 which was above the norm …Tuesday-Saturday high 60’s-low 70’s << nice 🙂 I prefer it to be between 55-82f

  11. Love this… it seems that I’m blessed to be able to reach for that sheet.. the joy of being home after staying in yes, those air-conditioned hotel rooms…

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