5 September

Star Wars. Sleeping like a dog

by Jon Katz

Izzy, who has no trouble sleeping.

   A book tour is perhaps not the best time to tackle sleeping issues, and to purge one’s life of all medications, but I’ve learned you have to take life as it comes, not as you’d like it come. Happiness is not, I see, about the absence of trouble, but about how we learn to respond to it. A good friend says we have to edit our thoughts and purge ourselves of negative and discouraging words and thought streams. He has a lot of good things to say, but I disagree about that.
  Life is a bitch sometimes, and I think I need to acknowledge it and not get stuck there. Something good happens to me almost every day, and many days, something bad. That is life, it seems to me.
  A lot of good things are flowing into my life: love, work, the best book tour I’ve ever had. Some great dogs and a growing list of fine friends.
  Freud says it’s about love and work. I’m good. I might add a few things, but why quibble?
  For all this, I am still working through my sleep issues. I’ve stopped seeking remedies and expert advice. Given up medications and pills, natural or otherwise. I’m going to let my body and mind find some balance, sort it out.
 A wise friend e-mailed me that it takes time to mess your mind up, time to set it right. This is good advice, the kind I can take. I read that fools don’t take advice and smart people don’t need it, so there’s not much point in giving it. I’m not sure that is true.
 This week was a big week for me. “Soul Of A Dog” is on the NYTimes Bestseller list. People are eager to talk about it. It seems, for once, I’m on the right topic at the right time.
  The movie has come and gone, quietly. I will not miss it. I’m drawing big and interested crowds to my readings and talks. My new relationship is both a joy and a miracle. I spent the afternoon with a community of gifted artist showing off their growth, courage and talent.
 Sleep is an adventure every night. I never know what the night will bring. This may be where I end up. Or not. I can’t wait to find out. Tomorrow, Maria is off to work all day, and I am ambitious about photos. I want to take some great ones. I am mulling a new 100 mm macro lens from Canon with a stabilizer to keep the camera steady. My old 100 is scratched, battered and squeaky from being dropped maybe 100 times, and kicked and stepped and walked on. Also left on a road overnight, fallen off the back bumper of a car.
  My hands, I have to say, are not always steady, my bouts with frostbite making it tricky sometimes to hold the camera as I might wish. The lens is $1,100, $300 less used. Maybe next month. I’m thinking about it.

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