Rest…
leave behind fear, hope, anger, spilled milk.
Take silence only.
Sky, wind. Sunrise after the rain.
Forget the rest.
Sleep, Harris.
Rest from yourself.
— Reverend West (Vondie Curtis-Hall), Raymond & Ray (Apple TV+, 2022)
God Found in Ōita!
August 19, 2022 by 31 Comments
2:30 a.m. Here we go again.
I’m up. Three days, back to back to back, at this God-awful hour. Three days, standing in bare feet on cool grass, with my camera pointed up, trying to still my hands, trying to still my arms, just trying Still everything damn it, from the shakes — and then, if that’s not enough — my eyes are tracking the moon, aka a bright, yellow blob that is spastically jumping up and down in my viewfinder. So, now I have the shakes and vertigo. Has to be the lack of sleep. Has to be.
Rattled, I walk to the driveway, slowly, feeling my way through the dark, with jagged stones piercing the souls of my feet. Need to resurface this damn driveway.
I lay my arms on the roof of the car, and point upward. Why 2:30 a.m., and not 1:30, or 3:30, or even 5 am, like at least 10% of Humans? God, again, only knows, if there is a God. And I’m thinking maybe there is a God, because Someone wants me up to see Something at this hour.
I look back into the viewfinder. Sh*t. This isn’t working.
I place the camera down on the roof of the car, and let my arms rest. Sky is clear. No risk of missing the shot with cloud cover. Take a minute, re-group and go at it again.
I look up and down the street. No one else is out in their Jockey sleep shorts, their short-sleeved, white V-Neck, lurking around in bare feet waiting for their hands to stop trembling like a frightened kitten.
I lift my palms and look. Everything appears to be normal, on the surface.
I take a moment to re-check camera settings. Then I move to the lens settings. And here I find that I somehow turned off the automatic image stabilizer. Ha! It’s not me. I just knew it couldn’t have been me.
I snug up tight to the car, the smooth steel, cool against my chest. With the ship now anchored, I lift the camera and point. And, there, there She is, in all of her Glory.
So there is a God.
Just has to be.
Sitting @ Canon in Ōita, Japan.
Photo – Waning Gibbous Moon (57%). 2:38 a.m. August 19, 2022. 63° F. Cove Island Park, Stamford, CT. More photos from this morning here.
Sunday Morning. Yehi or!
August 14, 2022 by 55 Comments
No, it’s not my morning walk @ Daybreak @ Cove Island Park. Not yet 831 consecutive days, like in a row. It’s too damn early for that. 3 hours and 12 minutes before sunrise, to be precise. And here we are. As Ocean Vuong states in On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous: “Let me begin again.”
I thought about that for a moment. “Let me begin again?” or, “Here we go again?”
2:36 a.m. I snatch the iPhone and check Sleep data: 5 consecutive days < 4 hours sleep. I check the Dark Sky app: Clear skies.
Sully pauses his snoring to open an eyelid. His big brown eye looking through me: What is wrong with you Man? He turns his head, and falls back asleep.
I slip out of bed, head downstairs, my bare feet pattering on the hard wood floors, careful not to trip over myself in the darkness. I step outside, scanning the skies. There you are. Waiting for me.
It’s quiet. No Metro-North train whistles in the distance, the last train passing an hour ago. No dogs barking. No critters scurrying in the shrubs. Just me, and the cool grass under my toes, and my mind whirring.
Walking. With More Disquiet.
October 29, 2021 by 37 Comments
55° F. 6:50 a.m. Wednesday, October 27th.
Cove Island Park walk @ Daybreak. 5xx days, like in a row. Who cares?
I walk.
Wind gusts blow off Long Island Sound. I mean it’s blowing.
I climb up on the breakwall and prepare to take this shot. I can’t keep my balance. Camera shake.
I spread my legs. Tuck my elbows into my chest, and still can’t stabilize. Autofocus can’t lock on.
I release the camera, drop my arms, and rest.
I look out at the storm clouds accumulating on the horizon. I turn sideways to reduce the broadside impact of the wind, still trying to find my footing on the breakwall.
I’m on the final turn of Knausgaard’s new book: The Morning Star. “Fifty was all right. I hadn’t yet grasped the gravity of the situation. Sixty’s another matter altogether.”
It’s change that’s uprooting your ballast.
This ship is bobbling.
Sleepless.
Restless.
Peaceless.
Knausgaard continues.
“Why did the world become unsettled? What tormented it? What was on its mind?”
Notes:
- Photo: DK @ Daybreak. October 27, 2021. 55 F & Gusty. 6:50 a.m. Cove Island Park, Stamford, CT.
- Post titled inspired by Fernando Pessoa’s “The Book of Disquiet“
Walking. With Tu Fu.
October 23, 2021 by 16 Comments
53° F. 5:59 a.m. Thursday, October 21st.
Cove Island Park walk @ daybreak.
534 (almost) consecutive mornings. Like in a row.
I walk. Sort of.
One hour before sunrise. Deep in the Twilight Zone.
When One just can’t leave well enough alone, One pays. Advil PM & Tylenol PM have worked for 10+ years. Man Child thinks he could save a few bucks with Amazon’s private label “Basic Care Sleep Aid” tablets. Teeny, tiny, blue egg shell pills. I mean tiny. How much damage can they possibly do?
And so here we are.
Think of your first step after exiting the Salt & Pepper Shaker @ Six Flags Great Adventure.
But it’s a full 2 hours later.
World is spinning.
Stomach begs Mercy!
Each.Step.Must.Be.Deliberate.
Easy does it DK. Easy does it.
The head and the body not of this earth. Not on this earth. [Read more…]
Insomnia
July 27, 2021 by 19 Comments
All over the world people can’t sleep.
In different times zones they’re lying awake
Bodies still, minds trudging along…
some are too cold, some too hot…
Some under bridges…
some hungry, some in pain…
Some get up
Others stay in bed
They eat oreos, or drink wine
Or both
Many read…
Some check their email
They try sleep tapes, hypnosis, drugs
They listen to their clocks tick…
hoping to catch a ride on the steady sleep breath of the other
to be carried like a seed on the body of one who is able.
Right now in Japan dawn is coming, and everyone who’s been up all night is relieved;
they can stop trying In Guatemala though the insomniacs are just getting started
and have the whole night ahead of them.
It’s like a wave at the baseball stadium,
hands around the world.
So here’s a prayer for the wakeful
The souls who can’t rest
as you lie with your eyes open
or closed
May something comfort you—a mockingbird, a breeze,
the smell of crushed mint
rain on the roof,
Chopin’s Nocturnes
your child’s birth
a kiss,
or even me—in my chilly kitchen
with my coat on—thinking of you
~Ellen Bass, from “Insomnia” in Mules of Love
Photo: “Insomnia” by Alice Rose Photography. Poem, thank you Beth @ Alive on All Channels)
Truth
July 14, 2020 by 23 Comments
Source: Hartley Lin (formerly known by the pseudonym Ethan Rilly) is a cartoonist based in Montreal, Canada. Young Frances, the first collection from his ongoing comic book Pope Hats, won the 2019 Doug Wright Award for Best Book. He has drawn for The New Yorker, The Hollywood Reporter, Slate, Taddle Creek and HarperCollins. (via thisisn’thappiness)
Lightly Child, Lightly.
July 9, 2020 by 41 Comments
“1 a.m.: Lie here then. Just lie here. What of it? It’s just lying here. Think of good things… Try to calm the banging heart.”
— Samantha Harvey, The Shapeless Unease: A Year of Not Sleeping (Grove Press; May 12, 2020)
Notes:
- Photo: Katia Chausheva (Plovdiv, Bulgaria) with Ariel amoureuse (via Mennyfox55)
- Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”
(Sleep) Walking. Into Saturday Morning.
July 6, 2019 by 45 Comments
Friday night. Netflix movie. Two handfuls of shelled pistachios. Heaping bowl of Nacho Cheese Doritos. 3 scoops of The Fixer, Talenti’s Mint-Chocolate Chip gelato.
Full shot? Or half shot? After effects: Groggy to semi-groggy. I bite down on the smooth, egg shell blue Tylenol PM pill, snap it in half. Toss one half back and place the other half on my tongue. I cup hand under the running water, scoop it into my mouth, throw my head back, and chase it down. Do your thing Girl, do your thing.
I flip through blog feeds, Apple News Feed, Google News feed and RSS feeds. A quick peek at work emails. And then on to Kindle. I wade through the last two chapters of A. K. Benjamin’s Let Me Not Be Mad: My Story of Unraveling Mind. Turn the last page of the book, and pause. Why this book, this title, at this time, out of the millions of Kindle options. Benjamin’s words: “Words never surpass the bliss of breathing. Place hand through head: no brain, no mind, no hand” and “I could walk over London Bridge in rush hour, faces thronging around me, and diagnose each one in an instant: Psychosis … Depression … Lewy bodies … Panic … Depression … Sociopathy … OCD … Cynophobia … Panic … Guam’s … Everybody has something.”
Everybody has something…
Just give me 7 hours, 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep.
And then this somebody will deal with that something, and that everything.
Notes:
- Inspired by: Michael Wade in his post: “The Day” …”Firm Ground Rule: Do Everything Slowly.
- Inspired by: “Recreation, love, spirituality—each turned into work: This is how we cope …A current darling of neuroscience research—the cultivation of default-mode networks—indicates that our brains need mindlessness, unemployment, f*$king about, eating mental crisps, in order to thrive. ~ A. K. Benjamin, Let Me Not Be Mad: My Story of Unraveling Mind (Dutton, June 11, 2019)
- Photo: Wes Sumner (San Francisco, CA) (via Your Eyes Blaze Out)
Flying North N.E. AA1263. Add, yet another addiction.
February 23, 2019 by 62 Comments
It’s that time again. An updated inventory of Addictions.
- iPhone. Like Jenny Erpenbeck’s “Bone to bone, blood to blood, as if (we’re) bonded together.”
- Talenti Mint Chocolate Chip Gelato. Heaven in a cup. Sweet Jesus. 3-4 pints a week, minimum.
- iPad Pro. Speedy wifi in-flight. Enable online work in both directions.
- Sugar. Stonewall Kitchen Sour Cherry Jam. 2.5 heaping tablespoons stirred in with Chobani Fruit on the Bottom Greek Yogurt with Pineapple on the Bottom.
- Seat #24 E, Exit Row, AA Airbus A321. To/fro LGA to DFW. Same seat (or take different flight)
- Socks: Ultra thin, over-the-calf knee high. Can’t have hot feet or exposed skin.
- Advil PM. Ingest 1/2 pill one hour before bed time. Insomniacs sleep aid.
- Knee pillow. To sleep. Avoid bone to bone contact.
And so here we are.
Dallas, TX. Hotel. Wednesday evening.
I open the Jabra Elite Active 65t Wireless Earbuds charging case to find the right earbud missing. Major problem. [Read more…]
Riding Metro North S. With the Glow.
February 1, 2019 by 70 Comments
Work.
Mon 6:10 am start. Home at 8:10 pm.
Tues 5:31 am start. Home at 9:12 pm.
Wed 4:43 am start. Home at 9:36 pm.
Thur 4:30 am start. Home at 9:45 pm.
See any patterns here? Any obvious trend lines? [Read more…]
r u kin?
January 25, 2019 by 21 Comments
If I get up now, I can make coffee. I can walk down the stairs, go to the kitchen, and make myself coffee. Maybe sit down and write. I can hear my husband breathing. Our daughter breathing…The dog breathing. If I listen, I can hear cars out on the road, it’s still nighttime, or early morning, it depends on who you are, how you were raised, what experiences you bring to the different times of day, it’s three forty-five now, do you call that morning or night, I call it morning, but too early to get up, I check the time on my cell phone and then I check my messages, I sit up and lie down, a few cars drive past right outside my window, there and there and there, and farther off a gentler stream, cars driving past at night sound different from cars driving past in the daytime. Today is the first of _ _ _ _ _ ….
~ Linn Ullmann, ”Unquiet: A Novel” (W. W. Norton & Company, January 15, 2019)
Photo: Eric Rose
It’s been a long day
July 25, 2018 by 15 Comments
The mind is a hotel with a thousand rooms. When I tilt my head a certain way, I think about certain things. When I tilt my head another way, I think about other things. If I sleep on the right side of my face, for example, I’d dream of a pale rose, the future, or a continental diner in Passaic, New Jersey. When I sleep on the left side of my face, I’d dream that a hand is squeezing my heart, that I’m in prison, or that I’m watching hockey at an airport bar, about to miss a flight.
~ Linh Dinh, “The Mind” from All Around What Empties Out
Notes:
- Poem: Thank you Beth @ Alive on all Channels. Photo: Eric Rose via Seemore
- Related Posts: It’s been a long day
It’s been a long day
June 6, 2018 by 14 Comments
Physics says: go to sleep. Of course
you’re tired. Every atom in you
has been dancing the shimmy in silver shoes
nonstop from mitosis to now.
Quit tapping your feet…Go to sleep…
Go to sleep. Let darkness
lap at your sides. Give darkness an inch.
You aren’t alone….
here are the blankets, layer on layer, down and down.
— Albert Goldbarth, from “The Sciences Sing a Lullaby” in The Kitchen Sink: New and Selected Poems, 1972-2007
Notes:
- Poem: Thank you Beth @ Alive on all Channels. Photo: via Your Eyes Blaze Out
- Related Posts: It’s been a long day
Bed Time
May 16, 2018 by 9 Comments
May you sleep the most famous sleep: the night kind, one-third-of-your-whole-life-like…This kind of sleep is an egg: broken, mixed in, eaten, membrane shredded and forgotten like the torn-up dreams that let you go…The day was made for you to join the others…They are thirsty and smart and aching, waiting for you to carry your load.
~ Brenda Shaughnessy, from “Evening Prayer for the Humans” (The Paris Review, Winter 2017)
Note: Poem – Thank you Beth @ Alive on all Channels. Photo: Julien with Broken Love
Nuit Blanche
February 17, 2018 by 12 Comments
Thank you Nan Heldenbrand Morrissette for sharing “Nuit Blanche” (Sleepless night) by the Tarkovsky Quartet.
Riding Metro North. One Car Short.
December 8, 2017 by 51 Comments
Thursday morning.
33°F. Feels like 23°F.
Out the door at 4:50 am to catch the 5:01.
Dark.
Directly across the street: new Neighbors. Young and DINK. First things first. No curtains up, yet bright, white lights were carefully hand strung and evenly distributed across their bushes. The evergreens throw shadows on the front door. I pause. What was that? That softening, that load lightening ever so slightly. ‘Tis the season.
I board train. No open seats. At 5:01 a.m.? Conductor announces that the train is one car short and apologizes. $15.25 for a one-way Peak ticket to Grand Central (Yes, Peak at 5:01 am.) $15.25 and you get the privilege of standing. And standing for 55 minutes. Sigh.
I stand in the aisle, as the vestibule overflows with commuters. I set my bag down between my legs, grab the seat support, being careful not to brush against the passenger sitting in the seat. I hover over him. He feels it. Nobody likes this.
We’re five minutes into the commute. I’m restless. I’m tired. I’m anxious. I’m not going to make it. [Read more…]
Oh, Boy.
August 17, 2017 by 41 Comments
- Trouble Falling Asleep Between 9 And 10 p.m.? You’re Stressed
- Waking Between 11 p.m. And 1 a.m. Signals Emotional Disappointment
- Waking Between 1 And 3 a.m. Means You’re Angry
- Waking Between 3 And 5 a.m.? A Higher Power Is Trying To Tell You Something
- Waking Between 5 And 7 a.m. Signals Emotional Blocks
~ Read more @ What Waking Up At Different Times Of Night Means, According To Chinese Medicine (via Liftupstory)
Photo:luci d’inverno with Untitled
Riding Metro North. Est-ce-réel?
July 28, 2017 by 34 Comments
It came Monday afternoon, an Amazon order. Tall, soft and plastic, the kind that you would see end up with other marine debris choking the life out of Nemo in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
Calm is stenciled in 80 point font on the cylindrical container. “Natural Vitality Natural Calm Calmful Sleep Magnesium Anti Stress Extra Sleep Support, Organic, Wildberry, 16 oz.”
Bullsh*t. No chance this works but desperate people need to take desperate…
“Natural Vitality Natural Calm Calmful.”
Seriously? Really? Who writes their copy? What idiot would buy something with this lead?
I yank off the seal, tilt, then look down inside. The soft, white pillowy substance slides to one side and then the other. Contents may settle. Product sold by weight not volume“. It has settled below the half way mark. $28.49. Bullsh$t. Shysters. At least get it above halfway. [Read more…]
Live & Learn 