Dear Sleep,
Sometimes you allude me
and I sleep not at all.
I toss and turn and toss again.
Finally I take my mind to those places long ago.
Places where sitting or laying by water
wrapped me in your protective blanket and took me to dreamland.
As a young girl I remember digging a chair in the sand,
laying my towel there, and tucking into the comfy place.
Listening to the waves roll in and tumble the pebbles
at the edge of the sea while soaking up the sun,
I was lulled to sleep.
As a young mother, the exhaustion was true.
As the family played on a beach along the canal
I laid for what was to be a few moments rest on the dock,
but it became an hour sleeping in the sun.
As time went by I remember another time finding
myself in the tropics along the shoreline.
A hammock swung between two trees.
It beckoned me.
Soon the sun was warming clear down to my toes.
As I listened to the gentle waves and soaked in the sun,
I slept.
Do you have those moments when you must
walk with the memories that lulled you to sleep?
Does it help?
It sometimes helps me.
These are the memories I bring to a sleepless night.
The pictures of more recent times,
of sitting in the sun and near the water.
This truly is Pure Bliss to sleep by the sea
with the sun warming our souls.
