The February Horizons Magazine has finally gone to press. This time took me a little bit longer because I am resting my right arm and trying to do everything with the left. That just means things take a little bit longer. What I’ve been doing the last 2 weeks while I have been in final layout is to simply forego a lot of daily chores such as cleaning, cooking. I’ve let boxes stack up in the living room so that I can later take them to the garage and break them down flat for recycling. Basically anything not related to getting the magazine out was set aside for two weeks.  

In the final days before deadline, when I am nose to the grindstone for 10 or 12 hours a day, I have to take little breaks to get away from the monitor and the mouse so that I can come back and see the magazine with a fresh eye to proofread. Part of my monthly routine during these final days is to do a little bit of vacuuming, a little bit of laundry, run the dishwasher, strip the beds, and I do it in stages so it doesn’t feel like I’m doing too much work all at once.

Yesterday I was back and forth from the computer to cleaning all day long. I finally fell asleep crashed in the recliner and I awoke two hours later to go into bed. When I turned the light on, I was delighted to see the room was clean and straight. I’d even moved the bed so it was facing a new way. It took me a moment in my half sleep to get the pillows moved enough so I could get under the covers, but I fell sound asleep within moments.

When I woke up, I was a little disoriented with the bed being turned around. As I began walking toward the bathroom I was actually walking toward a large full size mirror which reflected the entire room back to me. But I did not immediately recognize it as a mirror, it just looked as though I was walking into another room. A room that I could not see where the bathroom door was.

Thankfully, there was someone walking toward me so I could ask her where the bathroom door was. Except what was somebody doing in my bedroom at 4:00 a.m.? She kind of looked like my mom except she was way too tall and her hair was white instead of black. She didn’t look any more awake than I felt. Then I noticed she had one of my night shirts on. Then I thought I was waking in a lucid dream because I recognized her as being me.

What I didn’t recognize was that I was facing the wrong way and walking toward the mirror which I probably would have walked into if I hadn’t tripped over Benny the cat on the rug at my feet.

It made me wonder how many other parts of my life am I half sleep walking around gathering incorrect impressions and then basing future thoughts, ideas and plans around these incorrect perceptions?

I am no less asleep sometimes in my waking life than I am when I’m slumbering.