The Perils of Sleeplessness

I'm currently participating in a scientific study on the effects of sleep deprivation. It is one of the longest running studies being conducted. It's my own study and though we will wait until the study is completed to publish all the data, the results are quite compelling. 

• Sleep is a luxury
• Restful sleep is taken for granted
• The lack of sleep alters brain function and efficiency
• A person can adapt to limited sleep for a long time
• Being really tired is not terribly unlike being really drunk, or so it would seem (this part of the study is still mostly inconclusive as I am physically incapable of having any amount of alcohol before falling asleep)
• Nights which don't include sleep are excruciatingly long
• The moon is rather inspiring in the wee hours of the morning
• There is quite a bit of night life among the wild creatures of our forests and meadows
• All things are funnier and/or significantly more alarming at 3:00 AM
• There are so many shooting stars at night... we miss the show too often
• Getting a goodly amount of sleep is our overall recommendation

Lochlan is off sleep again. Four nights ago he didn't sleep until 7:30 AM the following morning at which point the rest of the household was wide awake and facing the day ahead. By 8:00 PM that day I had been awake for well over 40 hours. The past three nights have been less grueling, but only marginally. I think I could sleep for a solid week and very likely still be behind on sleep. But, right now, I'd love to participate in such an experiment... find a quiet cabin in the mountains, take my two snuggly (well, one snuggly and the other "almost nice") canines and sleep. Just sleep. 

Though I'm insanely tired, my heart is full of hope and I have much to rejoice in as I look back on the past few weeks. Our beloved friends Mark and Renae (and Linnea) came for Thanksgiving and Mark spent an entire week helping me transform the Octagon property from looking like a war zone to the start of our place of refuge once again. He was able to "see" my vision and put into action the creation for future gardens, flood mitigation, rebuilt flagstone pathways, wildfire prevention measures, and general restoration of all the pieces of this special place which were destroyed by the floods. We were able to fill in some of our canyons, reroute water pathways to less devastating channels, move copious amounts of dirt to appropriate places, remove rocks, build 9 gabion walls to protect the house, build raised garden beds out of flood debris materials, rebuild our driveway, remove destroyed fencing from underneath 14 inches of dried mud, trim and remove trees that were broken or dying, uncover a large portion of our beautiful garden pathways, etc. Mark saw the canvas, helped me scrape off the old paint residue and helped me identify what colors to start with and where to place them. It is true that there are few gifts greater than that of a brother, but even greater the gift of a brother who makes the stuff of living the day-to-day, the sweat, blood, tears of hard work sweet and rewarding again. I think having Mark and Renae here was truly the second wind that none of us knew we needed desperately. 

We also took a couple of days to not work. :-) They had never seen the Grand Canyon before so that was very special to share with each of them! 

So, though sleep may all but elude me, I find my heart at peace and my eyes set to look forward. We must rise tomorrow and face whatever is required of us.