Asleep and Awake, A Bit of Both
What did I learn from my sleep last night, my dream sleep…
It was revealed to me (more reinforcement than revelation) that I will do my best to satisfy people’s expectations of me, but when those expectations become unrealistic, I have the capacity to declare my independence. While doing so in an angry way is within the scope of my ability, I prefer not to use that response.
A compliment (unrelated to sleep).
I was chatting with someone important to me yesterday as we were skiing. He told me something and asked me not to repeat it. I laughed and said he needn’t worry because a big part of my ethos is to be as noncontroversial as possible (also non-confrontational). He said that was one of the first things he noticed about me. He also mentioned that he appreciated that about me. The first real compliment of the day. I don’t look for compliments, but…
The second compliment of the day (also unrelated to sleep).
I had a good day skiing. I bit-it once, total yard-sale (no one saw it so it didn’t really happen) besides that brief moment that was only witnessed by me and the stranger that brought me one of my skis, I skied well. I’m getting better, not worse. That’s something to be proud of at my age. Both my daughter and her husband told me I was a good skier, as did their two friends that were skiing with us. None of them added, “for an old man” to the end of their compliment.
Back to my sleep story.
When Pope Francis had a question that was troubling him, he would write it down on a piece of paper and place it under a statue of Saint Joseph, then go to bed and allow his sleep to work on the answer overnight. It doesn’t matter to me if God provided answers to his sleep questions or if his subconscious did, or if those are the same thing, I think that is a good technique. The real point of that story and the message I’m trying to give myself is: Get good sleep. Sleep is an opportunity to get to know myself a little better and also to learn something that perhaps I need to know.
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