She Knows Where The Hail Is Stored

Sleeper Listening

Binah Speaking

 

Sleeping Breath©

From the purest source of curiosity, your brilliant little son asked a very profound question: “Do I breath when I am asleep?”

I told him yes, and that it was the most precious part of him which kept him drawing breath, and kept moving his heart to beat even as he slept unaware of his body’s needs. Grandpa said this was the hippocampus of the brain that did the job of breathing for us while we sleep. That comment is the very good understanding of an adult with some accurate knowledge of physical anatomy according to the best science of the time.  And grandpas should never be hastily corrected, even when they are only reasonably correct.   So I held my peace, waiting for some other opportunity to explain in terms a child could understand and remember.

The sages have steadfastly advised that we should submit gladly to the measured words of our authority figures (this is the basis of the advice to “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s...”)--not because it is convenient to personal comfort, but because to do so is a reflection of that order which regulates night and day as well as ensures that none here ever fall upwards.  So to a child, the expressed wisdom of a well-educated and loving grandpa should be regarded as a dependable source of reliable information, and should not be undermined by casual speculation from the avuncular sideline. Yet somehow we sense that the mystery at the heart of sleeping breath is not satisfactorily unveiled or resolved through the definition of fact, and that the child’s curiosity is far deeper with potential insight than most questions of a day.  Mother’s intuition and feelings point to clues explaining wonderments of this nature, and impressions softly entertained can offer glimpses into truths which hard facts trace only in outline.

Still, it is common for a child to further reduce such seemingly conclusive answers to the probing of further questions, as in, “What makes the hippocampus do this?” No doubt that question will arise in thought, and hopefully become expressed in spoken words; and the answer I suggest is again “It is the most precious part of you which makes the hippocampus do it.” 

The sages have also claimed that the Divine only shows itself to us in manner and forms that we as individuals have the capacity to understand; as we grow in time and experience we can see this in the progression of things we prize and then leave aside as we discover qualities of value which overshadow the previous treasures of the passing life-stages. The Disney Castle playset gives way to the prom dress which gives way to the bridal veil which gives way to the building of the nest for the little ones and on and on. One precious thing is exchanged for the next precious thing that is consistent with the needs of each life-stage. 

But the most precious thing is that which remains with and serves us to the end, and beyond:  She who from within provides each with the activity of breath even as we rest in the slumber of passing on. And this is only one of the many things hidden Beauty provides as we sleep with eyes tightly open, each in the particular time and place as needed.