Night

(Originally written Dec 23 07. I'm not sure why I didn't post it.)

I love the night. I love to quietly sit outside and take in all I hear and see.

This evening, the moon is bright, and it illuminates the roof tops and trees around us in our neighborhood. It's so bright that it lights up streaks of clouds in the sky. It's beautiful. And restful. And somehow peaceful. The moon just does what it does, and I just sit in my back yard and watch it and all that's around it.

A plane goes by, and I wonder where it's going. Maybe I would like to go, too. I hope the people are going places they want to go, not places they must go because something sad has happened in their lives. I hope they're going to where open arms await them, not going away from arms that have refused an embrace.

I see the stars, and wonder if they're really stars or planets. I'm not one who could really ever tell the difference, but if I wanted to disturb my solitude, I could go ask Lauren. He'd know. Dad always knew, too.

I hear coyotes in the distance. They seem so close, but it's at least a mile from here before you find any open territory. I don't hear them all the time, just sometimes, and I wonder what drives them to come so close to neighborhoods. I hope they haven't surrounded someone's pet and are doing what coyotes do. We used to have a lot of them when we first moved here 30+ years ago, but they moved farther away as our neighborhoods expanded. But recently, they seem to have come back.

I see cars over on Poway-Scripps Parkway - people coming home from a day out, or perhaps leaving for an evening out. Maybe some of those people are headed to a holiday party; and maybe some had to work today and are finally getting to come home.

When I wake up in the morning, it's still dark. Usually, I'm up around 5:00, but sometimes it's earlier. There is a steady stream of cars on the parkway even then, and I'm amazed that these people go to work so early. Although I've always loved to get up early in the morning, I've never been one to want to go to work early. I've always enjoyed my quiet time in the morning. I think I got in the habit of rising early when the children were small. If I could get some quiet time before they woke up, I was better prepared to enter their day with them.

Sometimes I sit in this room, a spare bedroom that faces the street, with the lights out, and I watch the night from here. Tonight, I can see our Christmas lights and occasional red tail lights as cars pass the house. I like Christmas and all the lights people put up. It's the only decorating we do at Christmas these years, but we always do it because we enjoy the lights ourselves and we think we owe it to our neighbors so they can enjoy our lights, as well as theirs, too.

I thought about seeing if I could take a picture of the night tonight, but decided I wouldn't. It's really hard to capture a good night scene, especially with a little digital camera. In 2003, I did get some fairly decent pictures of a lunar eclipse, though.

Sitting outside at night - or in the early morning - is settling for me. I do a lot of thinking then, but not about anything in particular. I just let the thoughts come as they will. Sometimes night inspires me to write. Here's a little piece I wrote, inspired by a sunset, and another one, where I actually did get a picture of the night sky while I was thinking of a fellow from church who had recently died.

Tonight, the night inspired me to write, too. Tonight, I love the night.