It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

It was a dark and stormy night. The wind howled down the Juan de Fuca Strait battering and rattling my back window till I thought it would cave under the assault. The lights flickered and flickered all day -- then with the night --  they went out.

Pitch black darkness engulfed.

Sitting in the dark with only myself is humbling. Yes, I had candles, yes, I had flashlights, but I blew out the candles and turned off the flashlights and let myself slip into the darkness and the silence. I loved the exquisite eeriness of the black surround. A lovely gift to myself.

Dim moonlight whispered in the window, otherwise there were no lights. No lights up or down the Speedway except for an occasional car looking all lost in the dark. No porch light, no neighbors light, only darkness and storm.

Sitting in the dark with only myself I tasted a minutiae of primitive man. How comforting a weak flickering light reflected on a cave wall must have felt. How comforting a breathing being next to you must have felt. Ian was out for the evening with business obligations so I was alone with my thoughts.

The darkness remained for hours. Two hours became four. The dark and stormy night stretched on. Four hours became all night. I occasionally used the flashlight, but mostly I sat in the dark and appreciated it. Felt it. I wandered in my mind from primitive man to modern man.

If we were all suddenly cast into darkness would we lean on our fellowman. I wondered about tribalism, now causing death and chaos in many places in the world. We are so isolated from our neighbor, our fellow human beings, with all of our modern advances we don't seem to need our neighbor for sustenance or comfort.

We don't need to share light.

As I went to bed I left a soft candle glowing on the counter to guide Ian in when he came home. The lighted candle in the window had a whole new, revelatory, absolute, concrete meaning. It became the powerful symbol I have read about.

A candle left burning in the window to welcome a loved one home from the dark to the hearth.

It was a dark and stormy night and I sat in the dark alone with thoughts too deep for understanding, just feeling.

The dark and stormy night passed as they are wont to do. I awoke to brilliant sunshine and spectacular snow capped Cascade Mountains. A modern woman once more with life at the push of a button. No more mysterious mind excursions. I was back. No longer reliant on my thoughts, my musings faded with the light.

No longer alone with myself. Yet very much so.