Late Night Advice

LATE NIGHT ADVICE He was trying to fall asleep She was thrashing about, sore shoulder on the right, sore hip on the left discomfort all over Ever of service, he said this to his wife: “Think of yourself in a birch bark canoe paddling downstream on a small lazy river through an old-growth forest, dappled sunlight falling through the mid-summer foliage, an old gentle song in the back of your mind.” Just when it was clear that the image was working, he could not help himself so he added these words: “…..a lazy woodland river, slowly gaining speed as it moves toward the rapids and the foaming waterfall with the hundred foot drop and the deep pool below, roaring and sparkling in sunlight and noise, deep shadows in motion, full of sleek water moccasins, dark brown and writhing, maybe agitated and waiting.” She was now wide awake, the arthritic demons disseminating pain, her head full of snakes and treacherous waters in a landscape of doom! Ever the good husband full of empathy and advice, he drifted off to sleep in a birch bark canoe, paddling upstream on a small lazy river, a gentle song on his mind