music, books, love and kindness

from Pinterest

I read this earlier today and it really got to me.

"The world is full of unhappy people. Kate's throat ached to think of them. People who lie in bed at night, fretting about their bills and adding up the hopeless totals...People who can't love because their hearts are dried up like last year's seapods...all the women in rented rooms with their hearts running with love and nobody to give it to."-Valerie Taylor

It reminds me of the bad part of insomnia, the way it keeps you up with nothing but your own thoughts, unless you jump out of bed and do something, anything, to keep you away from yourself for a bit.

Even though reading and listening to music can be solitary activities, they never make me feel alone or trapped with my own thoughts. Words in a book blessedly pull me right into another world and music, especially through headphones, can mercifully block everything else out but the sounds of a favorite song.

It's only at that weakest point of insomnia, when your body is too tired for anything but bed, but your mind is still busy as bees, that there's no escape from those thoughts.

Sometimes, making tea helps...if drinking it doesn't actually knock you out, the ritual of making and then sipping it is at least somewhat calming.