I
awoke several times last night and listened for a few minutes to the singing of
the insects outside, and it has me thinking, this morning, about some of the
other things that happen while I’m sleeping. For the few hours that I’m asleep,
the universe, as always, is a busy and stirring place. Besides the music of
countless crickets and katydids, there must be limitless kinds of activities
among nighttime animals as they live their important lives – the rushing and
shoving and soaring that’s essential for the creatures that carry on with their
lives while I’m lying among soft sheets. There’s the nighttime work of people
who prepare essential things for the rest of us while we sleep – the third-shift
factory workers who make the beds that we sleep on, the grocery employees who
get food up on the shelves so we can select what we need in the morning, the
employees of power companies who keep our night-lights lit. While I’m sleeping,
airplanes are streaking across countries and seas on essential missions,
hospitals are helping people prepare for better lives, and police officers in
cities and towns are taking their peacekeeping work seriously. While I’m
fortunate to be finding a few hours of rest beside my wife, rivers are flowing
as fast as they always do, and the steadfast stars are doing their shining, as always, above us.
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