Sleeping and Waking

"It is possible that a generation or two ago, more people than today, had a better instinctive understanding of how to prepare for the dream and sleep life of the night. The evening was like a pause. It contained possibilities of healing, of making whole, of regeneration, and of mending differences. People tended to gather around the hearth, and we like to think that perhaps there was peace in the house and within the people themselves. Certainly there was more story telling and singing, and families probably talked to each other more than they do now about the day's events. Such activities helped to call up the faculties of imagination.

"Today, probably the greatest enemy of the evening and its qualities is the television. There is the rush to start viewing the T.V. as soon as possible and there is the tempation to continue viewing until the end of the programmes. The day becomes drawn out until midnight; sleep becomes merely a consequence of the day. The evening loses its inherent dignity and its unique character and meaning. As a consequence, there is a tendency only to regard as important the material experiences of the day while the spiritual and cultural life is disregarded.

"In fact, it matters a lot how we stand before these doors or thresholds in the day or night, for, not only do they affect the subsequent quality of our sleep and waking life, but if we are sensitive to their mystery, they can hold keys to hints and questions about ourselves and our lives. Above all, by becoming more aware of these thresholds and their rhythmic quality, we can help both ourselves and our children to pass through them more adequately, and in this way we also help our family's physical and spiritual well-being." - Margret Meyerkort