It's 5:20 in the morning, and I've been awake for an hour and a half. No, I'm not an over-achiever. Just a woman who can't go back to sleep. It's so frustrating, sometimes, lying there in the dark in the bed, willing yourself to close your eyes and relax. Thinking maybe this night will be different, that tonight a miracle will occur and your mind will give up its circling. Circling like a vulture, waiting for just the right moment to swoop down and snatch your sanity in its talons. Sounds kind of strange, doesn't it? Losing one's mind to one's mind. If you are familiar with sleeplessness, you know what I mean. The mind gets cranked up, and you just can't stop it. If only it would ... Oh, well.
So I'm at my computer, and I hear it. Though it's still dark outside, I hear a lone bird singing an upbeat melody. The sweet song trills through the trees, through the air, through the window into my ears. I start thinking about our back yard. It's a mess. We have a broken pool that has metamorphosed into a frog pond - not the idyllic kind with the picturesque lily pads and pink blossoms. The grungy, murky, algae-filled kind. The surrounding trees and bushes and grass are overgrown. Beyond this tangle of green, there is a creek and beyond that, the woods. Kudzu has claimed many of the trees in the wood, and it is hanging low over the creek, threatening to leap across to our trees. From there, I imagine our house being taken over much as briars overtook the castle when Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger and fell into a deep sleep. People will drive by our lot and say to their children, "See that large green blob? That used to be the Bazemores' house, but then...."
What a dark scenario. What a hopeless imagining. The night is dark, the kudzu is aggressive, the snakes and spiders are real, and my mind is a vulture, not letting me sleep. Yet the bird sings. The creek tinkles by. Then the bullfrogs join in with their guttural bass voices. The song seems to say, "Your Creator is here. I'm keeping watch in the dark. Don't be afraid."
Psalm 121
No comments:
Post a Comment