Teachers and nurses and ER doctors probably all have something to say about a full moon. The strange energy in the air. The wild spike in unfortunate or injurious incidents. I personally have found myself imagining particularly unruly students as werewolves howling crazily at the bright full moon, their furry silhouettes becoming feral and wild and a little unhinged under the lunar glow. I asked my dad one time what he made of it, early in my teaching career. His response: “Well, the moon has an effect on all the animals, and I suppose we aren’t any different.”
I know that most teens don’t wake up on the day of state testing with any kind of gusto, but hear me out. One rainy morning students arrived, slowly and heavily into the testing room, sleepily, with such effort. Oh, I was tired too. Could barely get out of bed, trouble keeping my eyes open; and the soft tortuous sound of the rain beating on the school roof was doing its best to lull me to sleep. I thought of the bunnies and the deer, cuddled up in some nest or shelter on the forest floor, safe and dry from the cool downpour. I imagined them all resting and warm, sleeping the rainy day away with nothing to do and nowhere to be. I really wanted to curl up in bed. I mean, desperately wanted to cuddle in and be cozy all day. And I thought of the effect the rain had on all the animals, and I supposed we aren’t any different.
Somewhere along the way, maybe circa the advent of the light bulb or the alarm clock, we stopped following nature’s rhythms and started listening instead to man’s–tuned out of our own intuition, our bodies’ ancient wisdom and natural cycles. We override the body’s desperate inclination toward more sleep when days become shorter and the nights longer. Instead, we set our alarm clocks rather than waking to the sun. We ignore the longing to rest when it’s rainy. We drive to work in our warm cars, and walk through the parking lot under a big umbrella. We can stay warm and dry, but never quite shake that heavy rainy-day fatigue.
Maybe technology has evolved to keep us productive and professional in every season, weather pattern, and lunar cycle. But at the end of the day, humans are more nature than technology. More mammal than machine. And we need rest. The body knows it and communicates to us in incredible ways. I personally have pushed through needs to eat, drink, bathroom, rest, move, stretch–in the name of productivity or professionalism. For the sake of profit or performance, we ignore our deep inner plea for rest, quiet, care, and tenderness. But the body is wise. It’s a matter of slowing down to listen to what she has to say. At our very core lies our animal-like intuition and instinct. Like Bloodhound Gang says, “You and me baby ain’t nothin’ but mammals.”
So let’s rest when we are tired and eat when we’re hungry–just like they do on the Discovery Channel. Right? That’s how the song goes?