Sleep Given to the Beloved
In vain you rise early and lie down late, eating the bread of toil, for to the beloved it gives sleep.
Am I straining to earn, and missing what is simply given?
📝Reflection
This verse is a quiet warning against excessive diligence. A life of rising early, lying down late, eating the bread of anxiety — that, it says, can be in vain. Some things are not earned by striving but simply given. Sleep is such a thing; it does not come by effort. Rather, it comes when we stop straining. I tried to seize everything by effort — love, calm, even sleep. But there are things that slip away the harder you grip. Diligence is a virtue, yet trying to obtain everything by diligence was arrogance. To loosen the grip and know how to receive was also half the wisdom of a life.
🌱Apply It Today
Before one thing that will not yield to effort today, loosen your grip and ask: "is this something to wait to be given?"
This verse is read as universal humanistic wisdom, not religion — no faith is promoted, and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.
