I open my ears. Is that even right? I mean, you slowly open your eyes when you wake but that isn't exactly a true statement. For me, the first thing I'm aware of when I start to wake is sound. My eyes are still closed, my mind drifting in dreams, but my ears? They wake first. Sounds of reality filter in. I'm not even aware of it at first, these sounds of real life. My mind is busy tripping about unconsciously and does not like to be disturbed. I'm first aware of sound because my dreams change. My mind tries to trick me back into sleep. It incorporates the noise, tries to meld the sounds of reality seamlessly into my unconscious but it never can. The bird song that suddenly arise in my dream is too piercing and lifelike. The rain that falls has an insistency only found in reality. My ears are open even if my mind is fighting to stay closed. Sound brings me forth.
As I fight off the weight of sleep, following my ears, I notice my body. The heaviness of my legs, the angle of my arms, the tickle of my hair across my face. My mind catches up with the moment and begins busily ticking through the tasks of the day, all the dreams and visions tucked away neatly. It's always my eyes that wake last. Lazy things, they prefer to remain asleep for as long as possible. Long after my ears are listening and my feet jiggling, my eyes at last open. Although I have been awake for quite some time, my eyes seem to define the process.
"Slowly, her eyes opened, and she woke," reads the line in a novel. But I know the truth. It isn't the eyes that bring me forth. It's the ears.
Slowly, my ears opened, and I wake.
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