Can I Please Stay in Bed?

Some days, I wish I could just stay in bed.

Now that sunrise is a bit later, I don't wake up quite so early. I can tell it's getting light outside, but I really don't want to get up and face the day. There is no way to gently ease into the day. As soon as I throw the covers back, all three dogs are up, twirling and demanding breakfast. 

Once up, I get up to speed on the latest news, which is always depressing. The Chinese are hell-bent on driving elephants, both African and Asian, to extinction so they can obtain their precious ivory trinkets. As if it isn't enough that their desire for ivory trinkets is decimating elephant populations, now they are slaughtering Asian elephants for their skin. And don't forget the demand for pangolin scales, lion bones and rhino horns to supply other magic potions.

The United States under the current corrupt and evil administration continues to cement its position as the laughingstock of the world as it withdraws from the Paris Climate Accord signed by 194 other nations. It withdrew from the Iran nuclear agreement. The president threatens to shut down the entire federal government if he doesn't get funding to build an unnecessary wall along the border with Mexico. He suggests that he should be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for obtaining the release from North Korea of three Korean-American men. And then he brags about his ratings in the news media. Barely one year into his first term, he repeatedly holds campaign rallies for his supposed reelection in 2020. What a leader!

Neo-Nazi attacks continue, with more than 200 headstones in Illinois defaced with swastikas. I guess these are some of the "good people" Der Fuhrer talked about. 

I'm fed up with politics. I'm disgusted by all the hateful, negative comments I read online. I'm tired of people killing animals for fun. I'm tired of hearing about yet another mass shooting, and about the refusal of our elected officials to do anything besides offer their "thoughts and prayers." I'm tired of elected officials treating the US Treasury as their personal piggy bank, using it to fund their lavish lifestyles.

I have trouble sleeping. Some nights it takes anywhere from 1 hour to 4 hours to fall asleep. Many nights I wake up around 2 a.m. If I'm lucky, I will fall asleep again until 4:30 a.m. or so. I'm lucky that my dogs are great sleepers. They don't get up until I do. There are mornings when, after a night of little sleep, it takes everything I can muster to get out of bed. My mattress is so comfortable, my room so quiet, that I would love to just stay in bed. I would like to put the world aside for one day, perhaps make a cup of hot tea and drink it while sitting in bed, reading a book on my Kindle. Perhaps I would put some classical music on the radio. 

Of course, I can't completely block the external world. So I do what I can to minimize its impact on me. I recently had printed several of my favorite photographs. I can look at a head shot of a gorgeous leopard on the wall in my office. There is a new close-up of a sunflower and another photo of my favorite bird, the lilac-breasted roller, in my bedroom. In the living room are large framed prints of a couple of Yellowstone bison and of the beautiful Grand Prismatic Spring. Other new prints hang in the main hallway. Looking at things of beauty that remind me of some of my favorite places is a positive thing.

So is listening to classical music and enjoying a hot cup of tea each morning.I'm ordering a CD of bird songs, something I love to hear. And I often lose myself in a good book. I guess these things are akin to staying in bed without actually staying under the covers.