From The House of Edward

"We’ll take care of each other and we’ll all sleep together in a real pile.”
from the movie Where The Wild Things Are

I was born a bit too early for Maurice Sendak’s delightful book Where The Wild Things Are to be one of my treasured tomes of childhood. But I fell hard for the movie. When the wild things spoke of their love for “sleeping in a pile”, I was enchanted. These oversized creatures, furry and feathered, would all pile on top of each other, and finally, after much squiggling and snuffling around, with everyone comfortably situated, they would sigh a big sigh and sleep the night away - safe, secure, all for one and one for all. From my seat in the theatre with a tear in my eye, I was totally charmed.

And, as we all know well, life so often imitates art....

We had strange night of weather last week, one to make the old-timers look to the sky and shake their heads with a worried look. Winter-rainy and December-cold all the long day long till midnight came round with an eerie stillness. Where had the wind gone? Where was the rain? We heard it first at two am, that sharp whipcrack of thunder. The bedroom was hit with a nanosecond of the white hot glow of lightning. A thunderstorm in December?
Edward, who tolerates storms in daylight but has never been overly fond of lightning in the night, considered it wise to move from his customary spot across my feet at the end of the bed, much closer to the center of things. So, he plopped down between us just as Apple hopped up to take over the feet-warming spot. She settled in immediately, but Edward was still unconvinced that this was the absolute safest place to be and I felt him make his way further up the bed, lie down and sigh his most contented sigh.
A few seconds later I heard the Songwriter laughing and he whispered...”Are you awake?? You have to see this. Edward is sleeping on my head.” Sure enough, the poor Songwriter looked exactly as though he were sporting a polar bear hat, for Edward’s big furry head was resting right atop his own.
More quiet giggles and then....”Hey, we’re Sleeping In A Pile!!”
And do you know, those Wild Things have something. There is indeed a delicious comfort to be found in a pile of sleeping loved ones atop a feather bed in the midst of a strange December thunderstorm.
I can most highly recommend it!

“I could eat you up I love you so”
from Where The Wild Things Are