Inspired by my August Favorites 2015

It was a Sunday afternoon, and I cursed myself for the umpteenth time for not bringing a thicker mattress pad. My hips had started to bruise against the wooden beds common in China, because I slept on my side.

It was an afternoon too rainy to walk around outside, so we had a few hours to kill before dinner. I was laying on my back in bed, hands folded across my chest as I blinked lazily at the mosquito net canopy. The warm and humid Chinese weather left my skin slightly damp.

I wasn’t actively trying to take a nap.

I scrolled through my music, earphones wedged deep, until I found an artist that seemed to fit the occasion of a lazy Sunday afternoon: Alina Baraz.

Something about her slow and sultry voice and the deep, drawn-out bass convinced me that this was a good choice.

I hit play.

So you say you want to run away, we don’t need a plane, I could be your escape…take you to a place, where there’s no time, no space…I could be your private island on a different planet, anything could happen…

My eyelids fluttered and flew open.

Nine minutes had passed. I wasn’t used to just lying there, listening to music. Normally, I’d listen to music staring out the window during a car ride or walking to class or cleaning my room. My eyes would always be wandering, my feet moving, or my hands occupied. There’d always be something to concentrate on other than the lyrics or the bass or the feeling that I’d suddenly been transported to a calm, solitary beach.

It was a little uncomfortable not having anything to do but listen, but I gently eased into it. I let the lyrics was over me, let that gentle, warm voice communicate that I was home, home. The words swirling around in my mind, the scene was being painted against my closed eyelids, my own home movie. I wasn’t fidgeting in my slumber, and I forgot about everything, the fact that I had work the next day, or that my hair was still a little crunchy with hairspray from the night before.

I was caught in some sort of dream-like state, in control of my thoughts, but suspended in a very peaceful state of mind.