Susan's Thursday morning note September 1, 2022 Quotes, Prayers, Blessings on Nighttime Hours & Dawn
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Do not go back to sleep…But yet I know that God is near, In darkness as in light…Keep your eyes open to your mercies. The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.
Good morning! Absolute stillness with light just arriving behind what only looks of shadows but in actuality trees. All nature seems to desire more rest. Sleeping in. Only sign of life is ripples caused by a cat’s paw and steam from my coffee mug. My angel of dawn hold one of the last bouquets of summer flowers as she peers through my window. Her eyes are again shining and bright, though, encouraging me to again enter this day. Enter this movement in my composition called life. This week I reread a paragraph from Charles Dickens out of his novel David Copperfield. The scene is of the few moments of thought before going into sleep. Just in this one paragraph our character’s mind goes from memories of his mother’s face, his favorite places during life to rest, and the feelings described as he falls asleep. Following this intense paragraph are quotes, prayers, and blessings on sleep and nighttime hours
“The room was a pleasant one, at the top of the house, overlooking the sea, on which the moon was shining brilliantly. After I had said my prayers, and the candle had burnt out, I remember how I still sat looking at the moonlight on the water, as if I could hope to read my fortune in it, as in a bright book; or to see my mother with her child, coming from Heaven, along that shining path, to look upon me as she had looked when I last saw her sweet face. I remember how the solemn feeling with which at length I turned my eyes away, yielded to the sensation of gratitude and rest which the sight of the white-curtained bed – and how much more the lying softly down upon it, nestling in the snow-white sheets! – inspired. I remember how I thought of all the solitary places under the night sky where I had slept, and how I prayed that I never might be houseless any more, and never might forget the houseless. I remember how I seemed to float, then, down the melancholy glory of that track upon the sea, away into the world of dreams.” Charles Dickens
“I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?” Ernest Hemingway
“Night is purer than day; it is better for thinking and loving and dreaming. At night everything is more intense, more true. The echo of words that have been spoken during the day takes on a new and deeper meaning. The tragedy of man is that he doesn’t know how to distinguish between day and night. He says things at night that should only be said by day.” Elie Wiesel
Now blessings light on him that first invented this same sleep: it covers a man all over, thoughts and all, like a cloak; ’tis meat for the hungry, drink for the thirsty, heat for the cold, and cold for the hot. ‘Tis the current coin that purchases all the pleasures of the world cheap; and the balance that sets the king and the shepherd, the fool and the wise-man even. There is only one thing, that I dislike in sleep; ’tis that it resembles death; there’s very little difference between a man in his first sleep, and a man in his last sleep.” Miguel Cervantes (1547-1616)
“Even a soul submerged in sleep is hard at work and helps make something of the world.” Heraclitus
“Keep your eyes open to your mercies. The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.” Robert Lewis Stevenson
“If you can’t sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It’s the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep.” Dale Carnegie
A Child’s Evening Hymn “I hear no voice, I feel no touch, I see no glory bright; But yet I know that God is near, In darkness as in light. God watches ever by my side, And hears my whispered prayer; A God of love for a little child.”
“The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Do not go back to sleep.” Rumi (1207-1273)
“A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.” Victor Hugo
Ancient Celtic Evening Prayer
“When I see the moon in the night sky
I speak my evening prayer:
Praise be to the Being of Life,
For His kindness and His goodness.”
The Wings of Sleep – Ancient Jewish Prayer “O Lord our God, King of the Universe, Let the wings of sleep fall upon my eyes, and upon my eyelids. O Blessed One, Let me lie down in peace, and rise in peace. Into Your hand I entrust my spirit.”
Thank you for letting me enter your world again this morning. To try to pull together thoughts worthy of our minds. The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Do not go back to sleep…But yet I know that God is near, In darkness as in light…Keep your eyes open to your mercies. The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life. Words written long ago that we have the choice to put into the forefront of our thoughts today. Will we look at the world as children are able to do? Find the little gifts given to us for only this moment from our Creator? Little spiders giving reprieve to their bugs and letting them swim in the leaves for a few hours of peace. Beautiful summer flowers giving their final encore before exiting their stage. Children’s voices singing as they play. Oblivious to fears and future scenes. Present in their moment. Finding time to sing.
Tonight we will be handed our chisel. Will we have moments in our day that are worthy of inscribing in the stone? Moments that are going to pass so quickly the next few hours through our sand-timers. Will we mentally capture a few sands as they pass through? Look towards the heavens regardless of where we are in our songs to find a peace that no one observing us will realize we were handed? Our promise. Will we look into the eyes of the children. Of our friends. Of ourselves. Will we take the time to notice how beautiful this song called life is? Our gift. Thank you for coming into our store for your toys, your gifts, your cookies, your friendship. I look forward to seeing you leave with a book or thought that may possibly change the rest of your life. Susan
Latin for this week: Luna - moon Ex luna, scientia – from the moon, knowledge (motto of Apollo 13) Imminente Luna carpe noctem – By the light of the moon, seize the night. O Mater Luna, Regina nocias, adiuvo me nunc – O Mother Moon, Queen of the night, help me now. Lunatic – “moon-sick” lunam – moonlight me ad lunam volant – “Fly me to the moon” In sol solis, vires, in luna, venia. – In the sun, strength, in the moon, grace.