The witching hour: midnight (with reference to the belief that witches are active and magic takes place at that time) (Dictionary .com).

Disclaimer***: Some sites refer to it as related to supernatural creatures, and the time varies from midnight to 2 until dawn. Supernatural as it may sound, the concept of witchcraft is not the intention of this blog. If you get offended or feel chills with the title I chose, it won’t hurt me if you stop here.

In the past months, my sleep pattern has drastically changed.  Due to my prior hospitalization, (and it’s true they wake you up to take sleeping pills), my body has gotten used to being awake, mostly around 3 am to 6 am. Recuperating from the surgeries, I am mostly awake at night and asleep during the day, (I know, I can hear my colleagues now, that I need the exercise and get back to reconditioning).  I’ve been trying to do a little bit here and there (up and down the stairs, I consider as exercise). But there goes my planks.  I’ve been doing 3-minutes per day and that’s all. Besides, I am trying to be nice to myself by not pushing too much so my system doesn’t get overwhelmed. Yoga, I can do now with ease but progressing slowly. Loving myself also means not pushing anything that may affect my current physical condition which is not quite 100% yet but is getting there.  I’m trying to be nice to myself (although my fiercest competitor is myself, of course).

In the past months, I have been waking up around 2-3 in the morning and can’t go back to bed until 5 or 6 (I’ll be in trouble when I go back to work). After an hour or so of tossing and turning, there always comes this sudden PEACE. Like everything is right with the world. With poor eyesight, I have learned to use my other senses more.  In the darkness, I can feel.  The warm blanket that surrounds me. But mostly I can hear…almost nothing. Just the hum of the air purifier and AC, but very little sound. Almost too quiet. Sometimes the rustle of the trees from the wind or an owl hooting nearby.  But nary a soul, not even my husband’s breathing.

In the darkness, I am no longer a patient, a wife, a mom, a role, nor a status.  But a BODY.  Just a body. LISTENING. That’s when I let my senses listen to the QUIET…listen to my Soul. I let every single muscles and joints and organ… just listen. There I find the NOW that I seek. And that gives myself the freedom to JUST BE. There I find the PRESENT that often eludes me in my waking hours.  No past nor regrets to think about.  No future to worry upon. Just the NOW. How I feel NOW.  What my mind is thinking or not thinking.  What my heart is feeling. But most of all, what SPIRIT is telling me…NOW. JUST BE. PRESENT. NOW.

That’s when I feel myself alive within the vast darkness…for it is only when I am lost to its gentle embrace that I find true serenity. And the healing begins, not just physically, but mentally, and emotionally. At that moment of all-presence and all-knowing, I visualize myself in great health, happiness, and wholeness and the peace within myself, knowing that I am surrounded by love. And albeit the darkness, I know that my Spirit Guides surround me and is with me to guides my way on.

This lasts for about 30 minutes to an hour and then I either fall asleep or go back to turning and tossing.

This is my WITCHING HOUR.  SUPERNATURAL? Maybe? If it stops all the chatter in my head, then my mind, body, and soul would concur. This is when I find my SACRED SPACE, where I can find myself over and over again.

“The quieter we are, the more patient and open we are…the more deeply and serenely the new presence can enter us, and the more we can make it our own, the more it becomes our fate.”

—Rainer Maria Rilke

Originally posted August 16, 2019