It was a busy day, not only a busy day, but the last few weeks have been busy. And you didn’t feel like you were living your life in the present. You were just lost in your head, analyzing thoughts, mostly unimportant ones. You realize you spent way too much time living under this condition, overthinking things.
It is late spring, the weather is warm, and it’s night in Thessaloniki. You fell exhausted in your bed, physically exhausted and also mentally drained. But you just can’t stop thinking. From lying in your bed, you see the full moon shining outside. In a state of semi-consciousness and almost dreaming, you grab your jacket and put on your shoes. You go down the stairs, accustomed to hearing your footsteps, but now, you can’t hear them. Neither can you hear the sound the door makes as you try to open it. You step outside, breathe in the night air, and a gentle breeze tousles your hair, and in this moment, you start to hear again.
You walk down the street, stopping shortly under the light of a flickering lantern. You keep walking, reaching a busier street, where nobody seems to be there, or maybe there is, but you cannot perceive them. You keep walking, seeing the lights from the rooms in the houses; you’re not the only one awake right now. You pass the store where you always get your coffee in the morning and the flower store where you always admire the purple violets that remind you of someone.
You keep walking, but you don’t feel any tension; the steps are light, and you don’t feel your whole body, you’re just lost in thoughts somehow. You can’t really explain it, but you also don’t need to explain it to yourself.
You pass by a mirrored wall, but at first glance, you don’t see yourself there. You would usually freak out, but now, you look down again at yourself and look back at the mirror, and on the second look, you can see yourself. It doesn’t bother you. You’re now heading into the district where the bars are, seeing the people and hearing the dull music. It’s crowded, but not too crowded. You notice the people, the music, but they don’t seem to notice you. Nobody is looking at you, which is freeing and not bothering at all.
You cross a road, it’s red, but there are very few cars. You touch the trees with your hands as you pass by them. Now you are at the port and the seaside; you somehow expected to hear the sea, but the sea is calm like a lake, no waves. You close your eyes, take a deep breath in, and then again and again. You hear a strange sound, an uncomfortable sound, and you look up to the sky, opening your eyes.
And you wake up in bed, it’s 6 am.
