Waking up

You know that feeling when you have had too little sleep and are woken by your alarm, when you just want to go back into dreamland.

The noise draws you out of unconsciousness just enough to shut the trouble off, and then you disappear again into slumber.

But you know you have to get up. There is something important to do, something essential, and you must move from sleep to sobriety. You feel the strong pull back into the warm comfort of unconsciousness, as well as the other attraction into the light of day.

Maybe for a while, with a few minutes to spare, you sleep a little longer, risking not waking up in time. And then, perhaps after repeated hits on the snooze button, you begin to choose consciousness.

The benefits of waking up become clear, and you select, in that moment, to steer yourself towards consciousness.

On the whole, we live in a deep sleep, and we are on the path of waking up. We love the comfort of unconsciousness, where we needn't be responsible and can cling to our dreams. There they mean the world to us.

We sense that there is a real world waiting out there, but we want just a little more slumber. We will fight for it. We will sacrifice our lives to stay asleep. Yet we want to wake up and live.

Most of us are on the cusp, making this choice moment by moment. We are in a darkened room still, but we know the sun is shining outside. We have seen it, tasted it. We have felt the freshness.

Just as you make that choice in bed, on the brink of a new day, so you can choose to awaken your whole being.

The sleepiness of socialisation is seductive but expensive, and less and less appealing. The lucidity of awakened being is a transformation, a new life. You can, with enough awareness, distinguish between the two.

Compromise calls like a heavy comfort blanket; consciousness calls like a clear day.

Gently yet certainly, shift into the sunshine.