Morning, 9/11/07

It's too late this morning to be able to sit in direct sunlight coming through the window. The sun is higher in the sky at 8:45. I have a glass of chai tea mixed with soy milk before sitting; and I wash my face to help wake up from the early morning sleepiness, blow my nose to clear out the breathing passages.

I notice that my nose is still a little stuffed up, and it affects my breathing. At first I breathe for a short time with my mouth open. And, then as I continue to try to breathe through my nose, the congestion opens up enough to allow for full breaths through my nose. Again, cycles of alert wakefulness and falling into sleepiness. Feeling, more than hearing, the thrum of the diesel engines of the train, a feeling in the chest similar to watching a parade and feeling the beat of a bass drum as a marching band passes by. I notice several times when I have fallen into a sleepy state that it is something outside myself that causes me to wake up: the sound of the cat jumping up on the deck from the ground outside, the sound of the refrigerator beginning to run, a thought of what day this is, a mental image of the buildings falling. But, that is inside myself now, inside the consciousness, no doubt, of all Americans. I wonder to what extent those events have woken us up as individuals and as a nation. Just thoughts floating on the surface of consciousness.