Current time: 12:52 am.
Level of Consciousness: Completely Awake & Oriented.
I’ve always been a night owl. I’m not sure why and I’m not sure what keeps me that way, but in the words of Vincent Van Gogh:
“I Often Think That The Night Is More Alive And More Richly Colored Than The Day.”
I can remember as far back as elementary and middle school being awake and wandering around the house at night. I would stay up until ridiculous hours watching whatever my parents were watching on TV, and dreaming of the world beyond the confines of our home. I fell asleep on the couch more as a kid than I do now as an adult (who now owns his own couch). When I started doing photography more and more, the fire department radio started staying on later and later, until eventually it was left on all day and all night. As a result, we would often be out for several hours, or up and out multiple times during a single night shooting fire photos. School night, Christmas Eve, raining, snowing… it didn’t matter. Some of the most insane memories and some of the biggest fires happened during the nights when I should definitely have been asleep. Summer nights during high school years, I would stay up in my room listening to music, listening to the fire radio, and talking on instant messenger with my friends until the sun came up. Those were the days when Dad and I would race to see if the other one was awake when a fire was dispatched, and then try to get out the door as quickly and quietly as possible so Mom didn’t wake up! Now I take the opportunity to think a lot at night. At a minimum once a week I venture outside, take a deep breath, and just stare into the endless darkness and let my mind wander. It’s very helpful and very inspiring. My imagination usually gets the best of me in these moments, so they’re usually short-lived, but definitely not wasted.
It wasn’t until recent years where I began to notice that I was more productive and thoughtful at night. My time spent sitting in silence or staring into the night sky helps me maintain focus and usually puts me back on track with the more important things in life. As a result, I tend now to do my best work in the dark hours, and usually end up surprising myself when I wake up the next morning (or afternoon as the case may be). I’ve always been a believer that it’s not about quantity of sleep, but quality.
Productivity (in my mind) should be a measure of the total amount of successful, end-result output rather than of the cumulative input set of preparation and work completed over time. Think about it.
To summarize these thoughts, and add some meaning to this post, I’d like to point out that everyone functions differently, and everyone has their unique character traits, but sometimes something so simple as just waiting a few hours to see results can change the perception of ones abilities. Have you tried it? Take a short nap in the afternoon, and then stay up late to see where your mind takes you. You never know what you could come up with.
This is all just my 2 cents while sitting here on my parent’s couch, 600 miles from home, wide awake at 1am. Now I’m off to edit a few pictures, change a page on my website, move some files onto a flash drive, and check some statistics associated with my webpages. Maybe I’ll get to bed by 1:30? Who knows!
Speaking of webpages, I’d like to remind you all to check out my other media outlets for more content of various shapes and sizes. The list is below. Also don’t forget to subscribe to this blog using the link at the bottom of the page. I’m working on starting a Youtube channel. Not sure what all I’m going to put there, but I will post an update when the time comes!
Sleep Tight!
“I Have Loved The Stars Too Fondly To Be Fearful Of The Night.” – Sarah Williams
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YOUTUBE CHANNEL COMING SOON!!!
Facing Backwards 