Note To Self: Quiet in The City

If I am being completely honest, I know I should not be out this late. New York City is known as the city that never sleeps, and I truly believe it does not know how to.

I say this as I watch a splash of activity happen on numerous street corners at once. To my right there is a hooded man trying to hawk his wares to any passerby that dares cross his path. To my left, I watch as a couple huddle together in a broken down bus stop waiting patiently for their scheduled ride. When I turn my eyes straight ahead I can see other late night lurkers still watching their televisions, an argument appearing to move from one room to another in a nearby building, and even just sleepy faces looking as weary as I feel.

I wanted to live here. This place that has become a consciousness of its own. A messy, beautiful, puddle of what NYC really embodies.

‘The city that never sleeps…’

It also means it’s hard for me to get to sleep. I’ve been in New York for a few years now and I still haven’t quite shaken my need for muffled silence for sleep. I’m the kind of girl who if she had her way would sleep in a soundproof coffin-like device with a door. I covet my sleep. It revives me. It nourishes me for the next busy day. It’s the ultimate ‘me’ time.

The quietest place I’ve found is where I sit curled up now, in a beat up lawn chair — on my rooftop. After I’ve done my nightly routine of no electronics, meditation, skin regime, and reading, I still don’t feel quite ready to close my eyes. It’s well past midnight and I have work tomorrow but the Big Apple doesn’t care. I stumbled upon this city-escape, as I call it, after living in my building for two years and my slice of soulrenity.

Here just above the skyline, I can take all of my city in, all of its commotions, backfiring cabs, and shouts from the street and see it front and center. My Mother loves to ask me how the heck I get any sleep. The one and only time she visited she couldn’t get a night’s wink the whole week she was here. I know it’s not a city for everyone, heck, sometimes I still ask is it even for me when I’ve got my earplugs tucked away in my hands. It’s a question I like to toy with but I know now, this is my home. In all its vibrancy I just don’t wanna miss a thing.

But then I remember, the city never sleeps, it’ll be here in the morning…