To
Sleep and Dream
“Sleep
that knits the raveled sleeve of care,
The
death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
Balm
of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
Chief
nourisher in life's feast...”
William
Shakespeare (Macbeth)
I
slept late this morning—until almost eight o'clock! Typically, I
will have been up two hours by now, but today there is a light rain
falling and daylight delayed, two very lulling components for
sleeping in. I clung to sleep, too, because I was dreaming that my
cousin, Sandy, and I were going through a box of our great aunts'
goodies, deciding who would get what. There was a pair of salt and
pepper shakers, porcelain rabbits in black with colorful trim. We
were trying to decide whether to each take one or to keep them
together. I finally handed mine to her saying, “No, they should be
together. You love rabbits, so you take them.” Who would want to
wake up from such a sweet dream.
Sandy
and I have always been close even though geography has not made that
easy. We were teens together, conspiring about clothes and boys,
dancing to the Beatles and to West Side Story. We loved to make up
scenarios about ourselves and pretend play until we were neigh onto
adulthood. She is my true sister-of-the-soul, even though we are very
different in many ways. We get to visit about once a year when I
drive up to North Carolina for a week or so. And of course, in our
dreams, where we take up where we left off, and know each others minds
about things.
Sleep
allows us to visit people we love, whether here or departed. I have
some very sweet dreams about my little sister, Missy, who died in
2004. She likes to buzz in now and then to show me what she can do,
now that she doesn't have cerebral palsy. Walk, dance, sing. She's
always happy in my dreams, but then, she was nearly always happy in
life, too.
Sleep
is a blessing for many reasons, not the least of which is that it
“knits the raveled sleeve of care,” restoring us to face the
challenges of the day with new eyes. When it graces us with a sweet
dream, we waltz into the day happy, and stay that way long, the dream
glowing at the edges of our awareness. If you sleep well, and
remember your dreams, count yourself among the blessed. The soul has
many ways of communicating with our ego-self, and dreams are a
primary source.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
1 comment:
Beautiful post! I especially like the Shakespeare quote. A friend mentioned this same quote last week, so I always take special note when such synchronicity occurs. The Bard had keen insight here.
I am a nurse who works on a surgical floor. Sometimes we will have a patient suffering from post-op delirium. In one such case, a psychiatrist was consulted. He recommended some medications, but I'll never forget what he said in his assessment: "What this patient needs more than anything is sleep." He went on to explain how sleep deprivation in post surgical patients is a common trigger for various degrees of mental changes.
Thanks for illustrating so well the benefits of sleep.
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