A man and a child resting in the rays of the sun on Friday in Kiev, Ukraine. (Sergei Supinsky, wsj.com April 6, 2018)
T.G.I.F.: It’s been a long week
February 23, 2018 by 11 Comments
Lions rested at the National Zoo in San Salvador, El Salvador. (Marvin Recinos, Agence France, wsj.com, February 22, 2018)
Sunday Morning
December 10, 2017 by 17 Comments
I don’t know where prayers go,
or what they do.
Do cats pray, while they sleep
half-asleep in the sun?
Does the opossum pray as it
crosses the street?
The sunflowers? The old black oak
growing older every year?
I know I can walk through the world,
along the shore or under the trees,
with my mind filled with things
of little importance, in full
self-attendance. A condition I can’t really
call being alive.
Is a prayer a gift, or a petition,
or does it matter?
The sunflowers blaze, maybe that’s their way.
Maybe the cats are sound asleep. Maybe not.
While I was thinking this I happened to be standing
just outside my door, with my notebook open,
which is the way I begin every morning.
Then a wren in the privet began to sing.
He was positively drenched in enthusiasm,
I don’t know why. And yet, why not.
I wouldn’t persuade you from whatever you believe
or whatever you don’t. That’s your business.
But I thought, of the wren’s singing, what could this be
if it isn’t a prayer?
~Mary Oliver, “I Happened to Be Standing” from A Thousand Mornings
Notes: Poem Source: Thank you Make Believe Boutique. Photo: Seb Rogo
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…]
Monday Morning Wake-Up Call
July 17, 2017 by 23 Comments
Photographer Franco Banfi and a team of scuba divers were following a pod of sperm whales in Dominica Island when suddenly the large creatures became motionless and began to take a synchronized vertical rest. This strange sleeping position was first discovered only in 2008, when a team of biologists from the UK and Japan drifted into their own group of non-active sperm whales. After studying tagged whales the team learned this collective slumber occurs for approximately 7 percent of the animal’s life, in short increments of just 6-24 minutes.
You can see more of the Switzerland-based photographer’s underwater photography on his website and Instagram
Source: A Photographer Captures the Unusual Way Sperm Whales Sleep via thisiscollosal.com, July 4, 2017)
Thank you Eric.
Running. Against Time. To Relief.
July 2, 2017 by 24 Comments
4:59 a.m.
Dark Sky reports 71° F. Cloudy for three hours. 22 minutes til sunrise. And…95% humidity.
I’m out the door. The edge of night has turned. I’m late. Disappointment drips. Morning brings others. I’m part way through Catherine Lacey’s “The Answers” where she explains: “Some people need to be unseen, to be alone, to be unreachable. And there was nothing wrong with this…” This felt so right, so me. Yet, I would have finished it differently…“And there is everything right with this.”
It’s not been a good week – not a single, self-inflicted act, but a culmination of events. A cumulative pile-up of sleep deficit.
- 4 hours. (Monday)
- 5 hours. (Tuesday)
- 5 hours. (Wednesday)
- 6 hours (Thursday)
- 4 hours (Friday)
- 6 hours (Saturday)
A cumulative deficit of 18 hours. The insomniac gets through his days, 1/2 present, 1/2 hallucinating. This Man, blessed to be migraine-free, now has intermittent lightening bolts sizzle – Warning shots – Wake-up calls.
It’s a new habit. Deep sleep for two to four hours and then UP, followed by half-a**ed attempts to get back to sleep.
The e-equipment on the night stand beckons. Work emails. 5-6 books at various stages of completion. Early morning editions of the newspapers. Blog posts. A dozen unplayed podcasts. Music playlists.
No. Don’t reach for it. Don’t touch it. [Read more…]
