a blanket for the sleepless

23May09

i was so buoyed by my success at falling asleep last night and not waking up till past eight this morning, i wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself when i did finally get out of bed. the cheerleaders are going at it as always, but i feel as if i could forgive them today. i could forgive the trains too. i haven’t felt this rested in a while; i can forge ahead again, and the world is such a beautiful place.

my boxes finally came after an agonizing two-month wait. books, at long last! they took up all the space i had alloted for them, and i cannot quite tell what to do when i have to get new books, but will cross that bridge when it comes. more worrying, though, is the fact that these shelves lie directly above my bed, and i sometimes fear that i will be struck dead one night by a bookalanche.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but the crowning joy in those boxes was this:-

 

 

 

 

 

 

this, is also known as my grandma blanket. it is a very simple, very random coverlet made up by layers of cotton and old clothes patched together, and i believe grandma has made several for every single one of her children’s families. there is nothing artistic in these blankets – nothing like the fancy patchwork quilts of the west. but they are the only things i can live with in the summer (cool, yet warm at the same time). they smell so lovely – a little piece of home, a little piece of my childhood.. so comforting i went to bed hugging it instead of sleeping under it the first night i got it. i remember using a really tiny one when i was young, which went to my brother when i outgrew it. he passed on, and i forgot about it until the first time i came to japan, some 9 years ago. it made a sudden reappearance then, and stayed with me throughout my first 7 years here. now that i think about it, it may have been around that time that i started sleeping curled up like a shrimp, because that was the only way i could fit snugly under that tiny piece of cloth.

grandma is too old now, and her eyes far too weak to work the sewing machine. i suppose our existing lot of blankets will have to last us till the stitches come undone, triangular patch by triangular patch… like everything else in life.

Filed under: random, reflections, singapore   |  2 Comments
Tags: blanket, books, childhood, home, sleep