One night last week I suffered from a terrible case of insomnia.  I couldn’t fall asleep for the life of me.  And then, we I finally did pass into a state of slumber, it seemed as though every hour or so I woke again in a wave of restlessness until finally I emerged from the bedroom around 3:30am to occupy my monkey mind.

I abhor sleepless nights.  The more I think about the amount of sleep I’m missing and the impending alarm clock, the more I stress and the more I work myself into a tizzy of prolonged sleeplessness.  Over the years I’ve learned to relax a bit, and just accept that I’m awake for some unknown reason.  In the wee hours of this period of unrest, I discovered a rather amazing, or awesome, set of photos to share for the week.

1.  Flyer’s Best Friend:  Dan McManus and his service dog Shadow hang-glide together outside Salt Lake City, Utah, July 22, 2013. McManus suffers from anxiety and Shadow’s presence and companionship help him to manage the symptoms. The two have been flying together for about nine years with a specially made harness for Shadow.

2.  Jumping Through Hoops: North Korean women jump through hula hoops during the opening night of the “Arirang” mass games performance at Pyongyang’s May Day Stadium on July 22.

3.  An Underground World:  A Palestinian man works in a smuggling tunnel which connects the Gaza Strip and Egypt in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on July 19. 

4.  A Bird in the Hand: An Indian parrot hatchling is fed by hand in Dimapur on July 24, after being caught in a forest by a local hunter and offered for sale in the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland. 

5.  A Wave to the Faithful: Pope Francis waves as he leaves Guanabara Palace where he attended a welcoming ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, on July 22.

6.  New Life:  A religious Jewish man from the United States kisses the ground next to his family after they disembarked a plane with other new Israeli immigrants at Ben Gurion airport, outside Tel Aviv, on July 23.

7.  The Air Up There:  Germany’s Anna Bader in action during the Cliff Diving European championships, on July 20, in Ponte Brella, Switzerland.

8.  Whale of a Time: A humpback whale jumps to the surface of the Pacific Ocean off Colombia, South America, on July 16. The whales migrate annually from the Antarctic, a distance of 5,200 miles, to give birth and nurse their young.

9.  Recycled Ruins:  West Midland firefighters tackle a large blaze at a recycling plant in central England on July 1, 2013. More than 150 firefighters worked to control the blaze involving 100,000 tons of plastic recycling material that sent a plume of smoke rising 6,000 feet into the air.

10.  Touching Tribute:  Figo, a Bardstown, Kentucky police dog, pays his last respects May 30 to his human partner, Officer Jason Ellis, who was killed in an ambush five days earlier.

Create your day to be an image of awesome…