Nightscape

The leopard frog quietly waits beneath four bags of hardwood mulch held high from the ground by two rows of cinder blocks.  The sun has set, and he emerges into the twilight glow softly hopping across the patio into the garden beyond.

Two chirps break the hushed approach of darkness as the little tree frog inches from under a valley in the vinyl siding towards the open edge bordering the deck's sliding door.  It chirps again, and emerges poking its head out from under the trim.  Gradually it seems to float across the wall, but only when you're not looking.

Dusk begins to pulsate with sparkles as lightning bugs hover, then move silently in and out of the plant shadows.  The last bird calls of the day are fading as a few sunflower chips are plucked from the feeder by late feathered visitors.

Silk threads appear across the landscape as the night spiders begin their journey to find their special place amid the leafy tree canopy and gardens below.  The buzz of wings passes by as an invisible beetle makes its way into the black void beyond.  The air is still.

The tinkling of wind chimes suspended from the second hook of the hanging bird feeders' shepherd pole announces the opossum has found the remaining seeds, and you know that morning light will break upon an empty feeder.

You look long until the outline of the world begins to slowly emerge from the darkness, your senses begin to sharpen, and the air grows with fragrances and night sounds.  You begin to realize that you are just one in all of infinity...one thread in the woven blanket of the entire cosmos.

You sigh, lean back on the swing, and look into the heavens sparkling with a dusting of stars from horizon to horizon.  You wait for that first shooting star of the night that will make your heart light, but know that most likely the only moving lights will be planes high overhead.  No Matter.

You're happy, and it doesn't need to be any better that that.