grace paced: Ohh my

Well, I went to bed last night with the intention of getting lots of rest for work today! After I got comfy and managed the longest uninterrupted (not to mention, completed!) prayer of my entire life (I guess there's a first for everything!) I found my eyes open and my mind very much the same, neither overcome by any sense of drowsiness. I looked at the clock.
It was 9:30.

haha! I don't know whaaat I was thinking, trying to go to bed that early.
true, a 6:30 alarm was in the future, but in terms of alarms and waking up these days, it was by no means the near future! Even if I did manage comatose at this time, it surely wouldn't last ten hours. Unless maybe I was having the greatest dream of all. But you have to be asleep to work something like that.

to maximize the use of my mental capacity and availability, I started thinking on a project that just recently came to know what can be called its 'primary stages.' I appealed to God for ideas, and he immediately sent one! I'm still trying to process it, trying to see whether He might lead me to something else by way of additional thought on it, but for now we've got a good start.
I'll have to research the cost of fake bricks here in Columbus. Sounds wacky for sure! but I think we're building at something :).

Hopefully they are cheaper than this! Maybe there is a bulk discount or something.

(*Aside: I am surprised to see just how many flickr images of fake bricks! Who'dve thought!)

Well, so -- I set off back for some sleep by now. After some minutes of profundity of thought (that is to say, an attempt at 'not' thinking) my mind managed a small bout of calm, and then hesitated none in coming back 'round to its restless gamboling, shining an obnoxious beam of light about all in my mind that had just managed to settle down under the blessing of its temporary little mind-lended sleepy dust. Heavens, I can't believe I just created that sentence.

It was 10:30.

Really, now?

Quick rest, then restlessness came back again, and I realized it would be nice to use the restroom. Yes, that would be a great idea!
Hello, 10:50!

Like any sensible person, I began to think about what could aid my inability to keep my eyes shut, and my mind at ease.
Reading, of course! Maybe if I forced my mind and eyes to stay open, they would eventually come around to doing what they do best and defy all of my present energies to make them work the way I want. Reverse psychology, for myself! How novel.

Novel! haha.

So novel, in fact, that it took on the guise of Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. We read it in 10th grade, but frankly I forgot just about all that happened, except for the part where he stares at the wall for three days and defecates all over himself. Of course I'd remember that. But even then, I don't remember why he did it. A re-read was in order.
Generally, this idea works pretty well.
Unfortunately, the book is actually pretty interesting.
I capped the experience at the end of the first chapter, and went back to sleep.

To sleep.
Sleep!
It lasted hours, this time!

Then I woke up, again, surprised not because it happened, but because I had made it all the way to 1:36 am! And I felt less awake, like a poco groggy maybe, (accomplishment!) but awake, nonetheless. I checked facebook, and then under the assumption that God wanted me up for a reason, decided to document this little escapade that you're reading now!

You will be happy to know that, 42 minutes later, I am feeling pretty tired!

And I realize, now, that my 6:00 pm attempt at fashioning my own homemade iced cappuccino (and then of course proceeding to consume it!) was probably not the keenest way to secure a good night's sleep.

I am glad to have had this time to learn that enjoying caffeinated anything late in the evening really does have an effect on me! That or God really wanted me to write this. Or both!!
I also learned that, for myself personally, insomnia-inspired writing tends to bear a lot of exclamation (!).

Once I read that, if it is a lucid dream you desire, all you have to do is wake up for an hour in the middle of the night, then go back to sleep, with a few hours' sleep left between then and the time you wake up. I always wanted to try it, but never found the time, or ability!
Happily, I report, that this has created the perfect circumstances to experiment with this particular sleep-situation. Yay!

Allow me to leave you with some flickr results for 'lucid dream' (I still have five minutes to round off a whole hour!)

Some I appreciate;