Who do you talk to in the middle of the night?

[pjthompson]

In a recent blog, the wonderful and irrepressible Maeve, a character “created” by the novelist Elizabeth Cunningham, is talking about her author. “Who do you think she talks to when she wakes up in the middle of the night?” she asks. “Who do you talk to?”

This made me pause and ask myself that same question. I didn’t have a ready answer. Not that I don’t talk to someone when I wake up in the middle of the night, but it’s not someone I can readily name. That Someone has been there listening for a good long time—maybe most of my life—but it’s not one of my characters, and I don’t think I’ve ever assigned the Listener a name. Or even a sex.

Originally, I was going to call that someone the Silent Listener, but that’s not strictly true. Sometimes that still, deep place answers back. No, I don’t mean I hear voices in the room. I mean that there are times when something bubbles up from the deep well of the Soul Place, a communication from…Well, yes, that’s the question. From the Beyond or from the Deep Within, hard to say which. Maybe both, maybe neither.

All I do know is that I can chat away about anything with the Listener. I can figure things out in our mostly one-way dialogue. When I’m really talking to the Listener, and not some hollow echo of my own reactive mind, there’s no judgment. In fact, there is often the subtle pulse of reminder that what I’m thinking or feeling isn’t so peculiar, that many people have felt or thought that way in the past, that I’m all right, doing the best I can.

Whoever is on the other end of the line, it’s a blessed communication.

Who do you talk to in the middle of the night?

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

Comments

[frigg.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...I guess I talk to the "other me" if I'm doing the talking, on the other hand, my characters will sometimes keep me awake or wake me up with their chatter.

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

My characters do talk to me, but rarely in the middle of the night. Usually they talk as I'm drifting off, sometimes as I'm coming awake.

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

Ah, being alone in the house most of the day, I don't wait for the night to talk to my listener. She's me, of course. Yes, I talk to myself. All the time! Though if anyone catches me, I claim I'm talking to the cats...yeah, that's right. The cats...

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

I'm not really talking about that kind of talking to myself. I do that all the time, too. I'm talking about a deeper level of talking...and listening.

[nicolealexanderauthor.com (from livejournal.com)]

Glad to know I'm not the only one who talks to my characters or has them talk to me. I've had them argue with each other or out of nowhere decide to tell me their entire life story. Usually it happens most when I'm driving my familiar commute or oddly enough, in the shower. But sometimes when I meditate I'll get entire scenes, and like you, they like to talk when I'm trying to go to sleep. But I wouldn't have it any other way. They've been with me for going on 12 years and it will be odd when I finish this series someday to say goodbye. But I'm sure others will take their place! :)

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

I would only think it's peculiar if your characters didn't talk to you. :-) It seems to be the Way of the Writer.

[makoiyi.livejournal.com]

Some would say that is your spirit guide. The ego is loud, but spirit guides talk quietly. Either that or your guardian angels. Depends on your belief system really. I have a guide who is bossy as all get out, but in an impatient kind of way, as if to say, you already know the answer. I didn't name her, I just know her name is Namete. Who she is, I have no idea.

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

I seem to have a bossy one, too, as I also get that, "Why are you asking me? You know the answer."

And yes...spirit guide/guardian angel is as possible as anything else. It's that still, quiet voice that, as you say, is beyond, or underneath (or whatever) the ego.

[darkspires.livejournal.com]

I don't sleep wel,l so when I wake up in the middle of the night, I start thinking about a book I am working on, or maybe a new one will start speaking to me.

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

You know, it doesn't have to be in the middle of the night. It can be in meditation or any type of contemplative state. Like I said to Susan and Susan said to me, it's that still, quiet voice that exists outside/beyond/beneath the ego. It's the true guiding voice that should always be listened to and will always listen with grace and without judgment.

Lost in the Waste Land

[dalaruan.livejournal.com]

"But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you
Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded
I do not know whether a man or a woman
—But who is that on the other side of you?"
Eliot, The Waste Land

In my case it's certainly a part of myself. The part who's stronger, wiser, sober-minded. Who calms me and guides me when I have to make decisions.

Re: Lost in the Waste Land

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

Yes, the Higher Self is a likely candidate.

(And thanks for that little taste of Eliot.)