On Counting Sheep and Traversing Skies

I don’t know if it is just me. But I am one who just cannot comply with simple explorations of the mind.



It is said that to help us fall asleep we can try to count sheep. So I tried that one time when sleep deluded me.

1…2…3…4…5… Wait! Why is that sheep running the other way? Com back here!

6…7…8…9… Oops! Why is that sheep stuck on the fence? Why is it not making a clear jump over the fence?

10…11…12… Huh? That sheep is smiling at me! Why is it smiling at me?

I give up! My mind ultimately always has its own say on this matter of counting sheep.



Then there was this one time when I was studying visualization.

“Close your eyes, and feel yourself soaring into the skies and beyond. Free your mind from all things mundane and grasp in awe at the vastness of the universe and in God’s creations,” said the instructor passionately.



Obediently I closed my eyes, eager to free my mind from all things trivial.

Yes, I could feel myself soaring high up into the skies.

But wait … is that Ultraman I spy hovering over there in the clouds? And is that a monster he is wrestling with?

Cut it out. Concentrate. I need to close my eyes tighter.

Oh no! Is that a missile tailing me? I got to dodge!



I give up. Timidly peeking through an open slit of my eyes, I saw all my classmates seemingly immersed in what they were doing. It left me wondering if they had made it to the seventh heaven. Alas, I was still stuck here helping Ultraman battle a monster and desperately trying to dodge a missile.



Do these things happen to everyone else too, I wonder. I don’t know, make me sit and listen to a lecture and I can focus for three hours. But ask me to imagine; and the mind starts to weave its own story; often ending up in a place far from the initial target.



I guess I am just a hopeless case of imagination running riot.

Well, almost every time.