Somewhere between waking and sleeping on our journey towards the unfathomable deep,
there comes a thin moment where we have one foot in the waking world and the other is in that other world where we relinquish conscious control.
Pausing here and straddled between two planets that drive one another like gears,
the attentive traveler will notice a narrow door only wide enough sidle through.
This is the border of sleep, where imagination and reality are braided together,
a chasm in the crust of consciousness,
venting the hot pumice of imagery into the irresistible magma of narrative.
Welcome to episode 27 of Stories from the Borders of Sleep,
a weekly podcast of curious tales from bordersofsleep.com featuring original stories by your host Seymour Jatlan.
Visit bordersofsleep.com for more information or to leave some feedback.
Artwork is by Robin Traynor and production is by Tim Wiles.
The soundtrack for this week's episode is from the album Unspoken by Jamie Sieber and Atmosphere by George Costatini.
It's available from magnitune.com the podcast is also available on itunes.
So if you are ready to journey with me, then I shall begin.
Iron and Wood by Seymour Jacklin Mabel had a favourite place to sit at the top of the garden,
an old bench underneath the reaching boughs of a walnut tree that in the summer months was dressed with the delicate pastel blossoms of a briar rose.
From here she could see over the garden hedge into the valley below and to the mountains beyond.
She would put her hands in her lap and sigh,
and on many occasions she would talk to them as if they were not part of her.
You've been good to me, she would say to them.