Hello darkness my old friend

Saturday night my daughter Molly and I found ourselves inexplicably alone at a gorgeous camp fire .

(The gentlemen in our party had wandered off into the woods and landed at a neighbor’s pond where they built socially distant sand castles and tried to catch fish with their bare hands.)

So, we were quite blissful at the largesse of peace we’d been granted. Sometimes, the sounds of silence are the most beautiful of all.

We had some Google-less fun trying to identify night birds echoing up from the river and watching them fly home for the night.

The pure magic of moments occurred to me as Molly and I fed the flames and listened to dusk fall over the woods.

Mesmerized by crackling birch, I thought about all we had temporarily lost in the face of this global pandemic, and all we could still count on to get us through.

We can’t enjoy events, or festivals, concerts, parades, sports, parties, reunions or live graduations right now because it isn’t safe.

But, we do have moments.

We have:

  • Summer campfires
  • Rainy afternoons
  • The kind of music that brings tears to our eyes
  • Inside jokes and belly laughs
  • Hot showers
  • Butter melted on fresh baked bread
  • Cartwheels
  • Reciprocated smiles from cute children we may or may not know
  • Cheerful chalk messages
  • Starry nights and all those wishes
  • Sunrises, sunsets or both depending on your schedule that day
  • Deep, cleansing breaths
  • Long, slow runs
  • Morning glories
  • The smell of fresh sheets when you turn down your bed
  • Hot, sticky marshmallows
  • A really well-written turn of phrase.

I hope you all find and celebrate your moments. Stay safe everyone!

You can feel pretty fortunate when your campfire flames reach up just as the sun goes down and all that gorgeous color meets in the middle.
Here’s a little taste of a campfire crackle
And, oh my heart! Here’s an example of a musical moment that will give you goosebumps. These are 300 musicians from 15 countries coordinated by Brooklyn College graduate Harrison Sheckler, who said, “Hopefully, the words, ‘you’ll never walk alone,’ along with the visual of 300 people joining together offers the audience some comfort and peace during this time. Stay safe and healthy my friends!” (Thanks to my friend Julie Olsen for sharing this song on her Facebook page).

9 thoughts on “Hello darkness my old friend

  1. I remember singing that song during my own high school years. So moving. Thank you Laura for always giving us perspectives that are beautiful and thought provoking.

  2. VERY true. And now you gave us a meaningful job for this day: count our blessings. Thanks, Laura.

  3. I got behind and am binging again. Excellent read and I re-shared. I LOVED the crackling fire. My imagination let me smell the smoke. The music brought my husband out of the kitchen. His mom used to sing it in the church choir. Remind Rick when I die that’s my funeral music. He’ll never remember.

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