In the Dark....and Some Pics.

We have all had that moment, or most of us have, when we find ourselves waking up suddenly in the middle of the night wondering what it was that woke us up.

Last night I woke up with a start to realize I was in the dark. Yeah, I know that sounds a bit like a no brainer, but it was the sound of silence that drug me from my sleep when the electricity went off, and most importantly...the air conditioner.

It took me a moment to realize why it was so quiet and then the panic set in. You would have thought I was locked in solitary confinement with limited air time. My mind raced, air...I need air. I am gonna melt if I don't have air. I fumbled for the windows and pushed them up and felt the hot muggy breeze filter in. Deep breaths...deep breaths...ugh, it's gonna get hot my mind cried. 

As I tried to lie there quietly, not moving, worried I would somehow smother or melt in the quiet darkness, I listened to the sound of the wind outside my window. In the darkness I could hear the rustle of the leaves against each other. The quiet sounds of traffic muffled by their distance. There was a rumble, a low deep rumble that grew as it came closer and the familiar sound of a train, blowing it's whistle each time it passed across a gravel country road. I listened until I couldn't hear it any longer. Some sort of bird, I am not sure what kind (Vero would know though, Vero knows everything). I just know it wasn't an owl. It was calling to it's mate or it was just making it's own little sound to verify to it's self it was there. Sometimes it's comforting to hear the sound of another voice, and it must be the same for animals as well.

It's amazing what all you can hear in the dark. I heard some rustling in the bushes, a sniffing and snorting like some wild animal was going to come thru my window at any moment. I wasn't afraid though. I knew it was the neighbors dog that makes her nightly rounds looking for rabbits to chase.

Everything seems so much more intense in the dark. Things are really, really dark in the dark. It's just you and the moon, if it should happen to be peeking out from behind a cloud.

It couldn't have been long. Ten, fifteen minutes at the most of my total blackout. And then I heard the whirl of the a/c kick back on, saw the glowing, blinking numbers from the digital clock, and it was almost with some regret that I closed my windows back up. One misses so much while one sleeps in the dark.

 

 

(A few blooms while out and about early this morning.)