Sleeping Under the Stars

Mike has been sleeping under the stars for at least five years now. When I brought my best friend Ivy to his place, they slept under the stars together and Ivy said that throughout the night, she felt that she was floating.

I wasn’t there; I was elsewhere, and didn’t have any idea what she was talking about until this year. In one of places I stayed in El Nido, I had the idea to try what she experienced.

I brought my yoga mat to the rooftop, along with blankets and pillows, as well as a music player, and watched the stars until I could fall asleep. I saw so many shooting stars until they felt so ordinary. I tried to sleep but I couldn’t, and then fog crept in after midnight and I was getting drenched. I was forced to go back to my room.

It wasn’t as successful as I planned.

When I got back to Mike’s place, I slept outdoors and tried to understand what the hype was about. And on that first night, after falling asleep to shooting stars and the beautiful night sky, I entered that state that Ivy described.

It was a sleep where I was aware of my surroundings. It was like turning on all my senses against intruders, especially animals. And without walls, my energy in the outdoors was as open and expansive as the garden, the ocean, and the vast night sky.

It felt so good and nurturing that I slept outside as often as possible. At the break of dawn though, Mike’s dogs and cats would jump at me and snuggle, waking me up. Those animals were just kids inside.

When I visited Mike last week, two dogs have already died, but he has also gained five new puppies. They were only two weeks old when I visited, the little sausages.

After sleeping outdoors for several nights, sleeping indoors felt like a prison. No wonder Mike only sleeps indoors when it’s raining.

There is such a thing as star bathing, or bathing under the stars. Many starseeds talk about this as a way of connecting with their star system during sleep. Now, where in the universe would I want to go?

// 30 Dec 2023