I sat on the sand at Playa del Rey yesterday and closed my eyes. For whatever reason, I haven’t been feeling well-rested lately. I mean, sure, I’ve been sleeping 4½ to 5½ hours a night, so that’s probably not been helping. So my mind drifted off quickly.

I imagined a snowy forest.

In retrospect, I think it was inspired by the first episode of season 3 of “Defiance”, set in a grueling winter. And by the last episode of season 5 of “Game of Thrones” (in which the phrase “falling snow” has a cruel double meaning.)

So I imagine myself wandering this snowy forest, making me reminisce of my days in North Chicago, IL more than a decade ago.

But I can hear the sounds of the sea (or some other large body of water, like a Great Lake, perhaps) and soon stumble upon a beach, where the waves crash upon the shore and immediately turn to ice.

I follow the coast a while and it soon abruptly transitions to a sunny beach. I can see that there is a well-defined boundary demarcating where Winter ends and Summer begins. The summerside reminds me of Puerto Vallarta. And there are elves.

Eventually I open my eyes and get up, realizing I am always running out of time. But the few seconds of undirected meditation felt restful. I need to do this more often.