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Sleeping in a box

Here’s a little something I wrote a couple of years back. Please forgive if some of it reads a little “unedited”. Most of this was written early morning, while inside a box.

It’s approaching two in the morning of the YMCA Sleepeasy event, and I’m tired. Yet I didn’t really fancy the idea of bed. Maybe it was the light, maybe the noise, perhaps it was the idea of trying to clamber into my “house” that you can see on the right hand side.

So, I kick off my boots, lean down, drag my sleeping bag out, just to see my loving crafted house fall to pieces on me. Leaving the bigger box standing, feeling uninspired to start again I wiggle into place. I lay down, very aware of the concrete underneath, shuffling around trying to blot out the light in front of me, leaning to my side… I’m aware of a church tower somewhere chiming that its two in the morning.

It was at this point that I realised, that I was now more awake than I was when this whole box thing started. More photos were taken, tweets were read, web pages scanned, and I opened my eyes again.

Before I knew it, that church tower was chiming for three o’clock.

At some point after three I went back to sleep “properly”. At somepoint I closed my eyes, and drifted off.

It was at 4:49 when I woke up. Rain thundering down on the shelter over us, my nose well and truly blocked up, and very aware I was in a cardboard box.

Very awake, very aware I was in a cardboard box, and oddly angry at the injustice of people needing to wake up like this. As I was laying there wondering what to do between actually getting up, and having breakfast, I wondered how we all got into a state where we accepted the fact that people have no choice but sleep rough on our streets, scared and sleep deprived, simply existing from one moment to the next

It all made me wonder how long I could survive on naff all sleep, spending my time waiting for something to happen.

Look, I’m not going to say that the SleepEasy event was anything really like sleeping rough for any length of time: For starters we were secure, we had people awake and watching over us, bacon rolls, there was a shelter over our heads, and we knew that no matter how long the night was, we had a home to go back to.

If you get a chance, look out for SleepEasy events next year, and have a sample of what it’s like waking up in a box.

This year Mrs Sofa, Anne Mackay is not only taking part in Sleepeasy, but also spending her first night away from Lil Sofa. She’d love it if you could sponsor a few quid to help motivate her during the early hours. You can sponsor her over at my.artezglobal.com.

Alternatively, do you fancy joining in?

Here’s a sample of last years event:

Find out more, and sign up at exeterymca.org.uk

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Jesus, now appears on toe.

Jesus. He’s appeared on a pizza , a grease mark, toast, and in a fence.

Now it seems that Jesus has appeared in a bruise on her toe:

According to krqe.com :

The couple says some holy dirt from the northern New Mexico town has left a holy and healing mark.

Just last weekend, Paula Osuna says she fell down the stairs at her home causing painful bruises all over her foot.

Eventually she asked her fiancé to rub some of the holy Chimayo dirt he had saved from a pilgrimage there a couple years back.

After putting the holy dirt on her foot and then bandaging it, she says the next day the bruise formed in the shape of Jesus on her second toe.

Read the rest over at krqe.com 

Where will Jesus appear next?