I usually wake up each night, my bladder seems to work overtime. when I return from down the hall, I don't always fall asleep rapidly. Some nights are easier than others. Last night was one of the easier returns to rest, compared to hours spent laying awake with worries and concerns filling my mind.
Like a radio that you can't figure out how to turn off or an emergency exit sign that stays lit 24 hours a day, a constant flow of thoughts enter my mind. It's like having a pilot light in my brain that burns constantly, ready to ignite a flurry of thoughts if I need to turn on the gas. This flame burns dimly, but its flickering light illuminates my mental bedroom. Very useful as a night light, but potentially distracting for sound sleep.
These are not dreams, since I'm not asleep. They're more like a background music of thoughts that play while I could otherwise be asleep. Aside from keeping me awake, most of them are not objectionable. Most are amusing.
Yesterday, I continued my binge of puzzles from a website that offers pictoral clues to solve for common phrases. Their archive of several years is still a rich goldmine for shiny nuggets of fleeting glee. The vein of rich ore seems to continue deeply for years backwards.
One of the clues in a puzzle was the Ancient Egyptian god Ra, illustrated in his classic profile as a falcon. This was only a fleeting experience, since I solved that puzzle quickly and moved along to sift through the next bucket of clues. Maybe this puzzle contained oily, resinous deposits that got stuck in my mind's pilot light. They hadn't burned off by 3am.
Ra returned to me, pictured as approaching the glass door of a temple. This was the first of many frames showing his encounter with the temple where he needed to perform an important ceremony. True to his avian nature, the next frame showed him toppled and dazed, laying on the ground after colliding with the glass. Poor Ra. Fortunately he had not been going very fast and stuck with his original plans. Ra then pulled out a handy scarab-shaped sticker and applied it to the doors, to make sure he wouldn't repeat his collision. Thoth and Horus would later appreciate his foresight.
Next, Ra brought along his friends as I imagined them lined up in front of a locked temple door, frustrated at their delay to another important ceremony. Seizing the opportunity, Anubis saw a doggie-door and crawled through, to unlock it from inside for rest of his group.