Christmas Lights in April (2020) – Photo: L.Weikel

Christmas Lights

I walked outside this evening and was entranced by the exquisite clarity of the night sky. A cool breeze wrapped around me, but I noticed that it wasn’t harboring a cold edge. Rather, it was refreshing and soothing; it almost seemed happy to see me outside, looking up, drinking in the brilliance of the half moon above me. The stars seemed unusually bright and twinkly.

The wind sighed in the massive boughs of the pines across the road.

I don’t know what it was about this evening that felt so different. But it did. And it does.

I went outside for the express purpose of taking a photo of our smattering of Christmas lights which we never took down and recently decided to reignite for a bit. Obviously, my purpose in venturing outside to take a photo of the lights was to share them with you.

Giving and Receiving

There’s probably something to that – a connection between my desire to share the simple pleasure of colorful lights decorating the darkness and the unexpected blessing of feeling seen and greeted, dazzled even, by the totality of the Earth, wind, sky, moon, and stars.

The entire experience has left me near tears. Perhaps just more of those weird feelings. Or perhaps its something else. Something bigger.

It feels bigger. The stillness feels bigger. The precious interconnection between everything – all of us – feels more acute to me.

My Intention

The point of tonight’s post was simply to share the joy it gave Karl and me to turn our Christmas lights back on and bring some color and whimsy to the darkness.

Don’t get me wrong. I love the night; I love darkness, especially when our eyes adjust and we realize it’s not dark at all.

But right now it feels like we could all use a little reminder. It’s funny. The lights we strung outside this past Christmas season were not traditional Christmas colors at all. And lighting up the night right now, they seem particularly appropriate: orange, green, blue and red. What an odd conglomeration. Brilliant colors nevertheless – illuminating the night.

And if I hadn’t chosen to write this post tonight and wanted to include a photo of our Christmas lights, I never would have experienced the embrace of Nature I received.

So…thank you.

(T-604)