sleeping with Gui

Gui has a very extensive ritual before going to bed (usually in the early morning hours):
first he applies an anti-balding product to his balding spots and rubs it in for several minutes, then he washes his feet and hands, treats his feet with a natural anti-perspiration product, brushes his teeth, and rolls himself a last cigarette which he smokes lying in bed listening to his favorite lullabies, checking out blogs and websites or writing and publishing late night poems on his own blog (www.anotherfuck.blogspot.com).
I felt honored to witness Gui's bedtime ritual and to spend these intimate hours with him in the early morning. Gui is great at putting people at ease. He is a natural at making conversation. I admire him because of the physical affection he shares with everyone around him. He spreads warmth and benevolence wherever he goes.
I was once again more in a listening mood. Not because I was feeling awkward or shy, but due to a profound sense of tiredness. Gui is in a long-distance relationship and wants to really make this one good and working. He asked himself serious questions about loyalty and commitment and finding himself.
He played me a song Pieter has given him: I see this darkness by Bonnie "Prince" Billy. It's a very sad and beautiful song. I thought about the friendship of Pieter and Gui, their artistic and maybe intellectual intimacy.
Gui sat at his desk and rolled yet another cigarette sharing his thoughts freely. There was something romantic about the atmosphere in this existential shithole of a room. I lay in bed and for a moment felt like the lover or muse of some poet. I just lay there listening and receiving. Is that my natural state? Being this recipient of life's vicissitudes - my own or somebody else's? I wonder if my presence had a calming effect on Gui. I know he has been feeling confused and slightly depressed lately. I would have liked to find the right words to reflect his many questions and meandering thoughts, to give him some simple advice, something to put his restless mind at ease. But maybe listening was enough, maybe just being there with this heavy body and tired mind of mine served a purpose already. Somebody once told me I listen like a lake. I like this image a lot. It is something I aspire to be.
Gui joined me in bed and read his latest poem to me. It was about words, about all the things words can do. I think you can find it on his blog. I must have fallen asleep while he was still reading or writing on his laptop next to me. I slept like a placid lake and woke up with my batteries recharged the next morning at eight to do my yoga and start my day with a good laugh.