But what really makes my heart skip a beat? The incredible truths of reality: the ones that make you redefine what magic means to you, the ones that make you shelve your fantasies for a moment.
While our imaginations have the ability to stretch infinitely with very little effort, perceptible stretches of reality are only ever small; thus their rare presence, no matter how un-magical they are compared to the dryads dancing in the forests of my mind, is astounding.
They are those moments when something you worked hard for pays off, and you realize your own strength;
when mother earth reveals herself to you in a way that only you can perceive;
when the complexity of our biological composition and the way it makes us feel (sex, runner's highs, even incredible sadness) causes you to realize you are your own largely undiscovered world, with surprises, pleasures and pains around every corner.
One of the real things that fascinates me the most, and constantly connects me with this ever-present, all-natural magic, is sleep. A few hours ago I woke from a wonderful night's rest, feeling almost guilty as to how well I slept because my boyfriend wasn't there (I usually sleep best when he's with me). I know why I slept so well: it's simply because I had a long, busy day yesterday. I woke up at 6:30 am and was going going going until 9:30 pm, when I finally got back to my apartment. I did some homework, ate some noodles, watched a cooking show, read about herb gardening, and by the time I got in bed, I must have been fast asleep within five minutes.
How amazing is it that you can be unconscious, immobile, maybe enjoying a nice dream (more on this in a moment), and your body is preparing itself for the next day of your life all on its own? Sleep makes you happy, healthy, and here; by that I mean that when you are well rested, you are 100% present, ready to meet your day and the people and places in it with confidence and clarity.
I probably appreciate sleep more than most because I suffer from sleep apnea. The maturation of my body over the last year has actually (miraculously to me, though the doctors predicted it) caused me to grow out of the worst of it, but every once in a while I have a terrible night's sleep that takes me back to my hazy high school days. I actually dropped out of high school for a while when I was 16 because I slept so rarely it made it impossible for me to go to class.
Sleep has the power to restore us, to rejuvenate us, to wipe clean the slates of our minds, to encircle us in unconscious comfort, to render us vulnerable yet indifferent, to keep us alive.
And then there are dreams. Worlds fabricated by your own mind where you can do anything you wish, anything, without disturbing any real people (or being subject to their opinions). You can completely immerse yourself in one, touch, feel, move--albeit in a strange way, and often I can't move in dreams--see, and sometimes even smell and taste. How awesome is that?
In short, sleep is magic; real magic. To prove that I am not the only one who believes this, here are quotes by some pretty rad (understatement) people who seem to agree with me as to the power of sleep and dreams.
“Each night, when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am reborn.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
“I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?”
― Ernest Hemingway
“You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
― Dr. Seuss
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