Feel the Night ...

The summer night is like a perfection of thought. ~Wallace Stevens

My daughter has been telling me recently that we needed to go outside and “feel the night.”

I hesitate - we've had pretty busy (and hot) summer days and sleep is paramount to the success of the next day. Not to mention that I've been exhausted myself with her brothers' early rising. But we've read quite a few stories lately that include some aspect of nighttime adventure.

So, I embraced the essence of summertime and we took flashlights and went outside.

And I once again learned through the eyes of my child.

Did you know that if you shine a flashlight in the crevices of a tree in the night, you can see some pretty cool bug things? Did you know that the fireflies are trying to teach us a dance?

And our garden…it looks so different at night. Flowers are more shadowy and mysterious. And let's not forget the fairies -- some sleep in the soft petals of flowers while others have made their homes in the tree near the fairy garden we made them.

We listened too - to the night time melody of crickets and the wind through the tree branches. Our street is so silent at night ... until my daughter's laughter pierces the quiet. She urges me to lay in the grass and look at the stars.

We whisper, we sing, she grows tired and rubs her eyes. I offer a piggyback ride to bribe her to bed.

I can’t imagine what my life would be like if my children were not in it. Or how much I needed to "feel the night" differently.

Image: from Google Images