How Can You People Sleep?

It has started again. This time of year it doesn’t matter if I set my alarm or not as I am awake at the crack of dawn, quite literally. My body knows that the sun is about to rise and agrees that it is time to rise to greet the day. This happens even if the window is closed, keeping me from experiencing the world waking up. If the window is open allowing me to hear bird song then it is game over, my brain will instantly start working to identify the birds and my body prepares for the chase. I just can’t comprehend how other people can sleep through this. More than that, I can’t begin to understand how listening to nature sounds is a way to aid calming down to fall asleep. The exact opposite is that case. Nature sounds are just begging to be identified thus activating, not deactivating the brain.

What? That’s not the case for you? I do get it, we are not all wired the same, and, yes, I am a bird-brain. But isn’t that an important lesson? It is natural to start with the familiar and known when trying to make sense of the world. Unfortunately, it is too easy to start with ourselves and project expectations on others based solely on our limited experience of life.  When people differ from us in thought or behavior it is a challenge. Understanding other perspectives takes work; work that we might not choose to commit our energy toward. Doing that work begins with a belief that the outcome will be worthwhile. I certainly hope that you believe that understanding others is a worthwhile goal, even if it doesn’t result in some discernible personal gain. I contend that simply gaining new knowledge based on the perspective and insight of others is a reward in itself.

That certainly is the case with my pursuit of birds. You may not be able to relate in any way to the insanity I engage in to find rarities or in racking up numbers of species. You may not be able to relate even to desire to do it. But you can appreciate that for me this is a pursuit that fills me with satisfaction and somehow helps me fulfill my purpose.  And the metaphor of chasing birds can also be instructive. When I give in to the desire to explore I begin with an idea about what I will find, but there is no bird trip that doesn’t include both surprise and disappointment. The not knowing is motivation enough. So even if birds aren’t your thing, there is a world of people and ideas out there to explore. How can you people sleep?