"It's at night, when perhaps we should be dreaming, that the mind is most clear, that we are most able to hold all our life in the palm of our skull. I don't know if anyone has ever pointed out that great attraction of insomnia before, but it is so; the night seems to release a little more of our vast backward inheritance of instincts and feelings; as with the dawn, a little honey is allowed to ooze between the lips of the sandwich, a little of the stuff of dreams to drip into the waking mind. I wish I believed, as J. B. Priestley did, that consciousness continues after disembodiment or death, not forever, but for a long while. Three score years and ten is such a stingy ration of time, when there is so much time around. Perhaps that's why some of us are insomniacs; night is so precious that it would be pusillanimous to sleep all through it! A "bad night" is not always a bad thing." -Brian Aldiss

I cannot believe that it has happened again!!! Another lost night to the sleep thief called "insomnia"... How do I know? I hear the birds begin singing - they always start at about 4AM. Rebel is asleep in my bed with his head on a pillow dreaming dog dreams, breathing fast, then slow. Early morning is a time of silence with gentle awakening sounds. The wind blowing gently through the pine trees, the sound of a train in the distance, my stomach rumbling for breakfast, even though my head has not touched the pillow this night! The sun is rising. It's cool outside. I can feel the cool through the window. Think I'll just stay awake and get a head start on Wednesday. The bird woke Rebel. He is mindlessly grooming himself and trying to sleep again. Surprised I wasn't more tired. I wheeled my manual chair all over WalMart - great exercise! Time for meditating in the dawn now.