Why do we sleep? Why do we need rest? Why can’t we just churn on until we reach the end of it all?
Life seems full of pause. We sleep at night. We take breaks during the day. We grow quiet in winter and resume zealous activity during the summer months. Like seasons, we are cyclical beings. Like days, we follow a rhythm, favoring the vacillation over the constant.
Great White sharks never stop swimming, lest they die from lack of oxygen and buoyancy. The rest of us need downtime. It’s hard keeping your game on 24/7.
We are conditioned to this cycle. I think it’s because of the earth’s rotation. The sun, that worshiped icon of life that rises and sets, is actually just blasting out its light, heat and cosmic rays every second for billions of years. Yet we are on earth, a planet that spins on an axis. This motion effectively converts the direct energy of the sun and makes it alternating. The cosmic inverter gives us a cycle, an enforced downtime, a rhythm.
Turns out this is a good thing. We need a break, a rest.
It gives us a ‘new start’ and the energy and optimism we find in that recurring ‘second chance’ of each new day.