My Soul To Keep

As a child growing up in a Christian family, I was taught the classic children' prayer:

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take

There are several variations to this prayer so some of you may have been taught something different. Anyways, the prayer above is what immediately came to mind after my line sister told me that our college classmate passed in his sleep. She said that he had sleep apnea as well, but of course we are not certain of his cause of death. When I say that hit home it really did. In the past, I spoke briefly about being diagnosed with the sleep disease and just started to think on the importance of this prayer. Although simple, it is still very relative and effective. Don't get me wrong, I pray at night, but if I were to die, I'd want the Lord to take my soul.

My classmate/friends death really made me realize the importance of wearing my Darth Vader mask. There are few times that I fall asleep and forget to put it on. Let me just tell you, the next day is beyond horrible for me. I feel super tired, irritable, moody, and just a mess. Although it's uncomfortable (and will probably prevent morning nookie, whenever I have a better half) it is definitely necessary. What happens when you stop breathing during your sleep is that your bodily functions start to shut down because there isn't oxygen going to your brain. If your lucky enough to catch your breath again, you often time start to shake/tremble a bit because your heart had just been told to start beating again. The problem without getting a constant air flow (besides death) is that you can have a stoke or heart attack because of the strain that it puts on your organs.

I am very saddened by my friends death not only because I heard he had sleep apnea and so do I; but he was one of the koolest guys at Albany State University. Just kool. We always went back and forth about sneakers or as we call them in the South, tennis shoes (little unknown fact, your girl had all of the newest and hottest sneakers, usually before they were sold to the public). He always had a smile and a kind word to say. I remember Dion being the first Big guy that I had a crush on Freshman year, whatever we called swag then is what he had. R.I.P Dion you will definitely be missed.