Another peaceful night

I just had a cup of hot tea out on my deck. The wind is dead calm and the ocean is quite loud. The sky is dark and moonless yet alive and vibrant with countless stars. I can see Venus still clinging to the night, hanging low in the south western horizon just above the ends of the earth. Mars broods high above me, directly overhead. Saturn is behind me to the east, a late comer to this night.

Earlier I heard the owl that hunts my property. She was singing her victory song and letting me know that she is growing old but still one of my nocturnal companions. I don't know how old owls get, I don't want to know really. But she is a great big owl and has been here many years. Sometimes I call her my owl but she is not mine, she belongs to the night time just as I do.

The cool night air carries the scent of the ocean and the trees. Two very powerful aromas that tell me I am home. The sea, the forest, the night, within the embrace of these I am always home. I am home on the ocean, I have spent many nights at sea dreaming of the things that live within her. I have spent many nights in the forest becoming a forest creature myself.

The sky is still quite dark and alive with a magic only the night can possess. The jealous sun has yet to even touch edges of the night time's shore. Yet it is inevitable and almost tangible. The daytime is soon to intrude, I can feel it approaching. There is something else too. Something else I have been feeling the past week or so. Fall is on it's way, I can feel it's approach too. It is off a ways yet but still, it is coming. Fall is not an intrusion though, I welcome Fall much like I welcome the night. So full of promise and the start to so much creativity.

Time for one more cup of hot tea, time to sow the seeds of dreams. Time to listen to the waves, to close my eyes and hear the sails set full on days when the sun warms my body. Time to think of elk and dear, sharks and whales, time to think on the stories told to me by my elders. Good night my friends, it is time to dream.

Otter