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Saturday, January 19, 2013

Naptime ~ Then and Now


Afternoon, upstairs in the big bedroom facing Railway Avenue
a nap with mom
My eyes shut tight,
I tried desperately to go to sleep
or at least looked like it.

Warm summer sun peeked ‘neath fringed window shades pulled half way down.
Mom relaxed, breathing slowed - is she asleep yet?
I’ll move just a bit to see if she wakes....
Her murmured voice breathes ‘Stop wiggling and go to sleep.’

Should I try to get out of bed?
If I turn over on my tummy
slide my legs over the side of the bed
keep my head on the pillow 
then hold real still just for a minute
then I can get up and go see what’s out the window.
Maybe a train will go by and I can count the cars.
See how many go by before mom wakes up..........

Naptime today ~ I am supposed to be getting a lot of rest, so
I sink against thick pillows propping me up on the bed. 
Sun warm through the louvered shades of bedroom windows 
Quiet outside and in ~ I doze, my book fallen against my chest,
one hand holding it open to the page for my unfocussed eyes.
‘I guess I should lie down properly and go to sleep’ - My own murmured directions.

Putting my book down, 
rearranging my pillows
slipping down in the cozy warmth of my sick bed
I close my eyes tightly trying desperately to go to sleep.

It is said that our cells hold memories ~ does this hold true for naptime?
Cellular memory ~ 
an interesting and still questioned quality
reflections linking us to the past, 
carrying us forward to the present 
~ a cup of tea and lovely memories.

“O memory! thou midway world
‘Twixt earth and paradise,
Where things decayed and loved ones lost
In dreamy shadows rise.”
~ Abraham Lincoln

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