Before Sleep

 

 

"Two practices I undertake every night while I lay in the dark before sleep. The first is to chat with the universe. I telepathically tell COTU (Creator of the Universe) what’s happened on Earth that day and how I feel about it. Everything from the horrors in Turkey and Syria and Ukraine to the “progress” on the hideous remodel two doors down. I complain about the arthritis in my knee and rhapsodize about the existence of the fruits and vegetables I saw at the Farmer’s Market.

Next I creep around in my own brain for a quarter of an hour unearthing buried childhood memories. I’ll remember incidentals like how itchy the petticoat I wore under my school dresses was or how warm and inviting the metal monkeybars felt. Also big stuff like the days I spent in isolation sick with Scarlet Fever and picking up a “chapter” book and realizing I could read it or the creepy bespectacled face of the math teacher who always tried to feel me up and gave me A’s in Algebra and Geometry just for showing up to class.

I tell you it’s therapeutic to talk to the universe and to stroll around your cerebellum every night. All those stars beckoning and the past so stuffed with experiences that didn’t get enough attention. I highly suggest you adopt a similar routine. Or take a Xanax. Win win."

 -Gail Greenfield Randall