God in my sleeping, God in my waking,
God in my watching, God in my hoping.
[For the whole prayer, click Prayers From the Hebrides above.]
God In My Sleeping
Sleep is where we work out what’s been lying heavy on our hearts, minds, and souls. In a dreamscape, our minds aren’t quite so narrow, and we can take a swim in the creative sea of images common to humanity – the collective unconscious. Sometimes, solutions come from this deep place, surfacing in our conscious when we are ready for them.
The usual rules don’t apply in our world of sleep. We don’t have the same boundaries, and our sense of self is, perhaps, just a bit more permeable and open to change. But that openness might be to darkness just as much as it is to light.
If I need God anywhere, it’s when I am open to things in this deep, deeply human land we call sleep. No matter how old, I’m young enough to pray this child’s prayer:
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
Angels guard me through the night (If I die before I wake),
And wake me in the morning light (I pray the Lord my soul to take.).