Silent Nights

It's an nearly midnight here, and very quiet for late Saturday night - no sirens, no choppers, no speeding cars, no yelling or screaming drifting up the hill from neighborhoods far away from here. It is SO quiet. I love nights like this. There's a gibbous moon hanging low in the sky, and I've just heard a car 'bumping' up the street - the first thing I've heard since 7 pm. These are the kinds of nights I remember as a child - dark, moonlight silvering the trees, and a sense of expectation, of magic - as if something wondrous were coming, if we waited long enough, listened hard enough. There's great joy and great promise on the verge of manifestation. Not a dog barking, cat meowing, or coyote singing - perfect. I have little to say, other than, how wonderful! It feels as if, were I to ask, the universe would answer ... Peace is flowing, deep within me, in my heart, where it has been a stranger for some years, now. It is falling like misting spring rain over the town, a warming thread within the breeze, welcome after the sound and fury we experienced last night - it feels sweet. It's Palm Sunday in 30 minutes - I don't observe such things strictly anymore, but the habit dies hard - the worship and duties associated with Holy week leading up to Easter. I am Unitarian and minimalist in my religious observances, any more - if divinity does not exist within each and every one of us, by grace, within each and every living thing, then I have no choice but to question its existence in any of us. But, that's a discussion for another place and time - I want to be quiet, I want to enjoy this sense of well-being and peace, as long as it lasts. Such moments are rare, and all the sweeter for it. I hear smiles in the wind tonight. Namaste. LinDee54