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By Guest Columnist Toby Nix
I don’t sleep well. I toss and turn while trying to fall asleep then toss and then while asleep.
I sleep worse when I’m on night shift, but working day shift doesn’t typically add much slumber to my life.
My wife can lie down and be asleep within a matter of seconds. Of course, it probably helps that’s she’s worked from the moment she woke up until the moment she lays down, taking care of me, the kids, the garden, the animals, the house.
I only have so many words to use per column so I’ll stop with the house. This was supposed to be about me not sleeping well, not how much work my wife does.
I’m jealous of how quickly she can fall asleep. Not jealous enough to attempt to do half of what she does in any given day though.
My brain jumps around from one thought to another – much like my columns – as I try to fall asleep.
I had a serendipitous moment the other night as I came off our most recent night shift rotation.
I was half asleep, tossing and turning. I had an old episode of “Seinfeld” playing in the background. I can’t fall asleep with quietness. My mind won’t let me – it needs a distraction.
My wife finished whatever last bit of work she had to do for the day and came in the bedroom.
It took her a few minutes to whatever women do when they’ve worked all day and are about to go to bed.
As soon as she lay down beside me, in a half-sleep state, my left hand reached over and grabbed her right hand. I’m not the hand-holding type. I’m really not even the hugging type.
But it was almost involuntary. She lay down, I grabbed her hand. As soon as I grabbed it, I could feel a little sigh of relief come over me. It felt like I would be able to fall asleep soon.
I only held it for a minute or two, tops. Any longer and she might think I’ve gone soft. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
But in that minute or two, I got whatever comfort my mind needed to let me fall asleep. I let go, rolled over and dozed off.
Just when I think she can’t possibly be any more important to my well-being, she goes and shows me I can’t even fall asleep right without her.
Toby Nix is a local writer, guitarist and deputy sheriff. He is the author of two books, “Columns I Wrote” and the newly released “A Book I Wrote.” He can be reached at tobynix@yahoo.com.