NIGHT TERROR

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1)

There’s something about being awakened by a strange smell, sight or sound in the middle of the night that can be, well, a night terror. Last night, I woke up around 1:30. It was one of those times that I was exhausted but wide awake. Admittedly, I’d had a very stressful day and I’d had too much caffeine to drink. I went on the computer for about ten minutes to check my e-mail, and I went back to bed.

We have gas forced hot air heat at home. I could hear the heat running, but suddenly I could also hear a loud, shrill, electronic tone which also was making a weird grinding sound. This is not the kind of thing you want to hear in the middle of the night. I have a basis for being concerned about what I wake up to at night. In 1991, I woke up to a burning plastic smell. It got stronger and stronger. It was strongest in the basement. I could not find it and ended up calling the fire department. At first the fire department had a difficult time finding it! Ultimately it was found. We had a freezer in the basement. The relay on the freezer was shorting out and burning out. Thank God I woke up! In a couple of hours the whole house could have been on fire! About two years ago, I woke up to a problem with the furnace and had to get Nstar Gas out for an emergency call in the middle of the night.

My gut feeling was the noise was probably coming from the heating system. I got up and walked around and as I got away from the bedroom, the noise became fainter. Going back to the bedroom, I listened at the window. It really seemed to be coming from OUTDOORS. I walked downstairs and opened the front door. Yes, outdoors on Harrison Street was a loud, shrill, electronic tone which was also making a grinding sound. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t anything close to our property, which it was not. The noise WAS kind of loud and kind of scary. I wondered if anyone else was hearing it. It seemed like it was coming from the distance, maybe at least five houses away.

I went back upstairs and lay down. For about 45 minutes I heard that loud, shrill, electronic tone which was also making a grinding sound. Sleep? Are you kidding? Suddenly, it stopped. After about fifteen minutes, I was asleep.

I know, I know, some of you are thinking this thing with the loud electronic tone really didn’t happen- that it was a dream. No, it happened! In the morning I thought of it. I’m one of those people who tries to see symbolism in just about anything. I thought about that NOISE- that noise that caused night terror. It was like a haunting alarm in the dark and no one was responding.

How many shattered lives are out there? In my experience LOTS. How many people as it were are (in some way) “sounding an alarm”- crying out even hauntingly- and are we listening, and what do we do about it? .....

Well, that’s my philosophizing. And, finally, on a physical and emotional gut level: I’D BETTER NOT BE AWAKENED BY THAT NOISE TONIGHT!