Blog 3779 – 03.17.2026
Thoughts After a Sleepless Night
I am usually a good sleeper with little trouble getting to sleep or back to sleep. I recall that during my first real experience of being away from family, home, and the familiar in my Army Basic Training just after my eighteenth birthday, fifty-seven years ago, that our training schedule included lights out at 8 pm and a loud wake-up call at 5 am. I had recently been given a Benrus wristwatch from my family with fluorescent hands so that when I woke up in the night I could tell the time in the dark. I actually enjoyed walking up throughout the night knowing that I had several hours yet to sleep before a new day of challenges began.
I still find that a pleasant experience and so I have owned and currently owned a Times Indigo wristwatch so I can easily tell the time without switching on a light.
Last evening I went to bed early with a splitting headache hoping that sleep would dissolve it away as it usually does. It was a long and restless night and the wee hours of the morning came before the pain between my ears finally relenting. I did finally experience a few hours of restful sleep for which I am grateful.
A phrase I learned some years ago is a great comfort to me on restless nights and troubled days, “This, too shall pass.” Troubles come to all of us, they try us and torment us and often we find it difficult, if not impossible, to figure out why or what we were supposed to learn from them. Perhaps the real lesson is just to stand fast until they are past.
There was a joke card I saw as a boy with a crazy cartoon character saying, “I love to hit myself in the head with a hammer because it feels so good when I stop.” If you have ever hit your head you know how crazy the first part of that sounds and yet if you have experienced a terrible spitting headache that went away as suddenly and as inexplicable as it came you have to smile at the last part. My, but it does feel good when the pain or trouble passes and a new and brighter day dawns.
“I wish you shelter from the storm
A cozy fire to keep you warm
But most if all when snowflakes fall
I wish you love.”
Your friend and fellow traveler,
David James White
I Wish You Love
theencouragingword 