75 – Night *

Special thanks to Ritva for providing the photos. Ritva is in Finland and I encourage readers to visit her blog Ritva Sillanmaki Photography. Please tell her I sent you and feel free to comment on her images here. She was also willing to try something different for me – collages. Any thoughts? Ritva’s work is copyrighted by Ritva Sillanmaki Photography.

Click the video above for 2 minutes of background waves while reading.

I like to walk on the beach. It is good for the mind, body, and soul – and refreshing on my feet.

Although now is a time of daylight, my thoughts are about night – that period of darkness ending with the arrival of light rising over the horizon.

Night is the time also called evening, nighttime, or even nocturne – the time between sunset and sunrise on the continuum of time. When does night start and end? Are dusk and twilight part of night? Maybe night flows like moving water, so we should not worry about that designation.

Night is a time when nature lifts the sky’s blue veil for us to see twinkly stars and a silvery moon reflecting enough light to outline the clouds and glisten across the water. Even on the clearest night here, the area lights of humanity limit my view of the stars and constellations, but Orion stands tall. I yearn for seeing the delights of night as a sky full of stars, the Milky Way, and glowing Auroras. The Southern Cross too, if I make it to the southern hemisphere.

I look out to sea and spot a ship moving toward the horizon. At night I notice more ships because their lights are easy to see against the dark backdrop. The multitude of lights easily identify cruise ships, and for that moment, I think about being on that ship.

Night is tranquil – a time when much of humanity slows down – a time of deep silence – but also a time when activity moves indoors and night owls flourish.

Away from the beach, night is a time of different sounds: grasshoppers, crickets, frogs, peepers, owls, and more – a nocturnal chorus of chirps, sequels, screams, grunts, howls, and growls – a time of rustling mammals, mockingbirds mimicking, singing insects, and howling coyotes – but here, the roar of the waves continues its domination of the soundscape.

The light of day is important for green plants making their food. But plants are adapted for activity at night because night is the time when plants take in oxygen to burn the food they made for energy and release carbon dioxide. Yes, plants are like us in that respect.

Although we can see it by day, night is the time when the moon is the goddess of the sky serving as the backdrop of love and dreams – a time we associate the enveloped darkness with vulnerability, fear, and danger – a time for seances, ghosts, vampires, and werewolves.

While night is a time for mystery, eeriness, loneliness, nervousness, rage, the crazed mind, and even death, it is also a time of love, peace, comfort, solitude, and a chance to say, Thank you for the day.

Night is the time when we stand in a giant shadow of time when all the colors become shades of gray. As the Moody Blues wrote, “Red is gray and yellow white. But we decide which is right. And which is an illusion?”

Night at the beach is a time of relative inactivity. With just enough light to see the white of the breaking waves coming from a sea of darkness, night is a time for lovers to walk, hold hands, talk, laugh, stare at the moon, wonder about the future, and kiss as waves caress their feet. For others, night is a time to walk with a flashlight with hopes of seeing the ghostly crabs of night.

Night is a topic for songs, films, and literature. During a rainy night in Georgia after a hard day’s night, a stranger in the night showcased his night moves while dancing all night long to Saturday Night Fever instead of making Saturday night’s alright for fighting. While the night in white satin remembers the night they drove old dixie down, Shakespeare gave us the twelfth night for a midsummer night dream because, after a night at the opera, the Arabian Nights cast a spell that conquered fear in the night. How many titles are in this nonsensical paragraph? Does anyone remember Three Dog Night?

During a night out on the town, someone will declare the night is young. Two may become like two ships passing in the night, but others will call it a night with a simple good night without encountering a one-night stand.

Night is the time when most of us sleep – a time we use to recharge our batteries for next-day activities – a time when the brain organizes the memories of the past day. Let us not forget that night is also a time for third-shift workers.

Night is a special time for many reasons, and worth thinking about during my daytime walk. If anyone played along in my nonsensical paragraph, the answer is 14. I enjoyed putting that together as part of my walk because that’s what thinking can do. After all, I like walking on the beach because it is good for the mind, body, and soul – and refreshing on my feet.

See what other bloggers have written about oneness

• The Night (poem)
• Starry Night Over Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (flash fiction from photo prompt)
• I Wait Another Night (poem)
• Night Photography: the empty town (photos)
• Silent Guardian of the Night (poem)

Next Post: Windows – Monday 10 May @ 1 AM (Eastern US)

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