Becoming more weary by the hour, I was more than ready to sink into my cloud-soft bed with its beautifully supple sheets and warm covers. Six hours sleep each night hadn’t cut it. Despite the long awakened hours of previous days and short nights, I had coped reasonably well. This night however because of the cumulative effects of less than optimal hours of sleep, I was certainly feeling it. The yearning for a sleep in was my last conscious thought before I was carried into the darkness of slumber.
After I devoured my evening meal, I lowered myself into my desk chair. Getting myself comfortable,I began working. Tapping away on the keyboard and penning thoughts across an opened notebook,I happily completed task after task. A review of my list with the firm lines crossed through the words revealed the priorities were taken care of. Satisfaction accompanied the happiness I felt for achieving my goal before the day’s end. A peruse of my next level of tasks and I settled on undertaking some research. Not onerous work requiring a lot of concentration; a read through with note-taking was manageable.
Minutes away from finalising the research I received an expected text. My partner was ready to be picked up from his End of Year work function. Elated with my productivity and all that I had accomplished, my laptop was put to rest until morning. With a proverbial skip in my step I headed off to do the taxi run. Once home, my thoughts were only about sleep and longing for more than six hours repose.
As the lights in the house were extinguished one by one, the glorious bright moonlight was slowly unveiled. Always in awe of these beautifully luminous nights with their sense of propitious, I paused; captivated. The brightness could only be that of a full moon surely. Shadows from the wavering tree branches danced along the ground whilst droplets of glistening light flashed off shiny surfaces, creating their own little light show. There was calmness all around; hardly a sound to be heard. Serenity!
Delightfully settling into bed, my gaze took in glimpses of the moon. When the sway of the breeze carried the branches from side to side, it would be revealed. Oh how I have always loved catching moonbeams as my body slowly begins to rest. It is one of the most relaxing things to do. I could barely feel the drift; it was so smooth yet at the same time, rather sudden.
The repetitive high pitched chirp of the chirpiest bird around signaled the sun was rising. Lying still, I listened for other familiar sounds of the morning to determine the time. Another early morning indeed and maybe, just maybe a few more minutes sleep attained. Merely an extra hour would have been ideal and most appreciated. It was so not meant to be, yet again.
Perhaps if I just lie here, I shall doze. Try not to think about the day ahead. Keep your eyes closed. Calm thoughts only. Give it five more minutes. Are you serious? With the heaviest of breaths that were on the verge of snoring, the other occupant in the household had rolled over launching his noise in my direction. With deafening volume, every breath sounded like an over-exaggerated huff by a cyclone! Okay, well maybe not deafening but definitely at a volume where a mute button would have been handy, believe me.
Arm raised up, covering the ear, that might work. Nope. Right, let’s try holding a hand firmly pressed against the ear. Not a chance of that blocking the noise either! Pillow pressed over the ear is worth a try. Although there was contemplation of the pillow over someone’s head instead at this point. Ignore it; think of something else or listen to the birds. Argh! Nothing is working. My wish was for only another half an hours sleep.
In defeat, I sat upright on the edge of the bed. Feet felt for slippers whilst my eyes adjusted to the bright light of day pouring through the bedroom window. No point trying to fight a losing battle. Your day has begun, take it in your stride and get on with it. More sleep will come another night. For now, go get that great big cup of morning sanity and meditate.
Clearly that didn’t work too well because as minutes turned into hours, levels of frustration and irritability were on the rise. Taking a few minutes for a deep breath and relaxation, a scroll through Instagram imparted a post that grabbed my attention. It mentioned lack of adequate sleep, frustration and being slightly emotional. Followed was a question asking who else feels these full moon effects. Light bulb moment right there; of course! There, right there is the reason for my lack of long hours of slumber and being frazzled.
Sense had been made as to why those in my inner circle were also ready to tear someone’s head off, had unusually emotional moments and were not sleeping as well as expected. The glorious and powerful full moon affecting us. Now to top my cake off, there was a layer of ‘cool and windy weather change’; enough to trigger an increase in all over body pain. Double whammy for irritability to escalate with the speed of a bullet train.
Being mindful of this, one takes into account those around her and attempts to pull the brakes on. Success rate varies. Relaxing mind and body is key to reducing the force. Don’t say it. Swallow those words. Be silent. Deep breaths. Lots of slow, deep, breaths. Remember that this is temporary. You will like these beings around you, more tomorrow and even more the day after. Probably like them a real lot again very soon. That is, until the next full moon.
Images: pixabay