Chuck Bjorgen
I’ve been retired for 22 years and do a lot of reading. A book I started yesterday had a conversation between a seven-year-old and his parents in which the youngster mentioned he had trouble sleeping. The father asked if the son knew his ABCs and was assured that he did. He was then advised to pick any subject that he liked and cared about and to start reciting his ABCs using thoughts from that subject. The son chose Harry Potter books. Although I don’t have trouble sleeping, I decided to try this technique last night.

I chose woodworking.

I started my test and did fairly well going Aspen, Birch, Chisel, etc., until I got to the letter K. I was feeling stymied on that letter but it was probably about that time I went to sleep although one never knows precisely when that occurs. This morning I realized that Knife was the word I wanted but the silent K was what threw me.

Not a sure fire test but I believe this exercise forces one to concentrate on the single subject thereby sending other concerns to their mental back yard. Might be worth a try in these troubling times if you’re losing sleep.