Night

On our way home from Albuquerque our little group stopped for the night in Monticello, Utah.  We arrived late, about 10:00 pm. The motel we stopped at was surprised that we required 4 rooms for the 4 of us.  He looked a little concerned and went to look at his available vacancies.  Finally he reluctantly came back with 4 keys. These were actual keys, it was not a new motel. I took one of the keys and went to my room.

As I opened the door, a musty, funky smell hit me in the face.  It was as if this room was not used very often.  I turned on the air conditioning full blast to try and blow some fresher air into the room.  I plugged in the mini fridge and was glad that it started to get cold. I placed my drink and yogurt inside.  Next I went in the bathroom and started a bath.  I was looking forward to relaxing in the hot water.  I had sore muscles from a few days of hiking through zoos, aquariums, parks, and museums.  I was not used to that much walking.

As I was soaking in the tub I was kind of annoyed at the overhead light in the bathroom.  It kept flickering on and off, on and off. I thought it must have a short in the wire and someone walking on the floor above must be jiggling the wires enough to disrupt the circuit. But no one was walking upstairs.  I could hear the tv upstairs clearly, the walls were thin. No walking.

After I got out and dressed for night, I climbed in bed and started to read my book.  I kept seeing flashes of shadow out of the corner of my eye, so I got out of bed and pinned the curtain shut with a needle I had.  No outside light was entering my room.  I got back in bed and again saw shadows.   I started to get a "feeling".  I wasn't scared.  I don't get scared easily, but it was an uneasiness.  I turned off the light and tried to go to sleep.  It was difficult to relax and fall asleep, even though I had taken a sleeping pill. Finally I drifted off and slept for about an hour.  My dreams were fitful and unsettling.  I can't remember what they were, but I remember feeling anxious in them. Then I remembered standing in a room and having an icy cold blast of air go through me, not like air going around my body in a wind, but right through me and I suddenly bolted awake as I exhaled frigid air from my mouth. I was wide awake when I felt the cold air come out of my mouth.

I had been humming and singing a particular hymn the day before, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow", and immediately started softly singing it again.  That was not unusual.  I often find myself singing hymns in the middle of the night when I wake up for various reasons.  The uneasy feeling went away and I went right back to sleep.

About 30 minutes passed when "something" woke me up with a start.  My eyes popped open.  I fully expected to see someone or something standing right above me. That's when I said a very quick prayer.  "Heavenly Father, please protect me and give me peace and help me get the sleep I need for tomorrow's drive."  That's all I said and then I fell asleep immediately.

I woke in the morning without any further interruptions. 

At no time was I really afraid.  I could tell something was trying to frighten me.  Fear is what gives power to darkness. I knew God's power was more powerful and that gave me peace. The dark side has the power to try to bother us, but we have full access to God's power to make them leave.