The Peace of Evening

After chores were done last night, I sat in my lawn chair by the pasture gate. I know, most people choose to have their lawn chairs over looking some wonderful vista and if the truth be told, the pasture is just that for me. I milked later than normal last night, so the woods to the south east were growing dark and I watched from my chair as the space below the tree canopy filled with darkness before any other space around. I listened to the final songs of the birds before they sought shelter for the night and heard the cicadas start their song, mixed in with the songs of crickets and an occasion croaking from a big old bullfrog that makes his home in my milk barn. The wind would race through the trees from time to time, bringing into the mix a new sound, rustling leaves. I sat there just listening, watching the evening fall upon me. Feeling a sense of sadness that so many people lock themselves up inside their homes watching television or sitting in front of a computer, rather than see what I was seeing, hear what I was hearing. As I sat there watching, the goats meandered into their barn, and scratched out their places in the thick hay to sleep the night away, and the kids settled down in their little barn, softly balling in a vain attempt to gain some sympathy from their mothers. In an instant, I knew why for thousands of years why people went to sleep with the sun, it felt so natural last night. The lullaby of nature made me feel sleepy, content, satisfied with the day being done, no desire to hold on to her by turning on artificial lights. From my chair, I saw the most amazing sight, as the woods grew darker, wonderful lights danced around in the open spaced under the trees... fireflies, like little fairies, darting here and there. Magical. I understood why so many ancient tales are filled with stories of tiny little winged people, the evening light makes you believe in such things, makes you loose reason and head full into the imaginary.

There is no movie that could hold my attention like this moment. I breathed a sigh of relief that my cell phone was in the house and no one could disturb me. Emery came and sat beside me, he loves this spot by the pasture gate, near the barn. He sat in silence next to me, soaking it all in too. Leave your closed up tight house some evening and just sit and listen to the night come, and the day light move on to another place. There is a peace to be found in this time of the day that nothing can match.