We sleep, allowing gravity to hold us, allowing Earth- our larger body- to recalibrate our neurons, composting the keen encounters of our waking hours (the tensions and terrors of our individual days), stirring them back, as dreams, into the sleeping substance of our muscles. We give ourselves over to the influence of the breathing earth. Sleep is the shadow of the earth as it seeps into our skin and spreads throughout our limbs, dissolving our individual will into the thousand and one selves that compose it- cells, tissues, and organs taking their prime directives now from gravity and the wind- as residual bits of sunlight, caught in the long tangle of nerves, wander the drifting landscape of our earth-borne bodies like deer moving across the forested valleys.David Abram
About This Quote
The great mind and writer, William Blake, wrote: “Sleep: the shadow of the earth as it seeps into our skin and spreads throughout our limbs, dissolving our individual will into the thousand and one selves that compose it.” He was saying that when we sleep, we are giving over to the influence of the Earth. The Earth is larger than life itself. It influences all living things. It is so much bigger than us that it is difficult to comprehend.
When we sleep, it has a profound impact on us. Our individual wills are dissolved into who we really are, which is an amalgamation of all our cells, tissues, and organs. This happens because of gravity and the wind.
As residual bits of sunlight are caught in the long tangle of nerves they move around inside of us like deer moving across a forested valley. It’s hard to grasp how big the Earth truly is but you can find some pretty cool facts about it here.
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