A Walk In The Dark

For most of my life, I have been a walker in the darkness.

I come by this naturally: I have been walking around or home in the dark since middle school likely.  It was a different time of course; such things were hardly considered remarkable in the town I grew up in.  Middle school turned into high school and still I walked.  There were long evenings spent with Uisdean Ruadh and The Director and others as we walked down and around the lanes and parks of our neighborhoods, sometimes walking the railroad tracks the three miles that it took to get to my hometown from my house and back again.

I walk in the mornings as well, but mornings are different.  They are far busier, with runners and walkers and dog walkers out in force. It is not that anything is necessarily wrong with that - it is just that it creates a different vibe.

The evenings, perhaps unsurprisingly, are different:  anytime after 2000 it is only the occasional dog walker and unusual nerd like myself that is out for a stroll.

Things are remarkably quieter as well:  most folks are inside their homes (perhaps use the word "Sensible" here), and most transportation has stopped.  Only the occasional car goes by:  delivery trucks, commuters, garbage trucks - all are gone home for the night.

The biggest difference is sound is simply that there are no birds.  Occasionally in New Home I would hear an owl out on the prowl.  Not here in New Home 2.0 though.  Only the background of the local insect life and frogs hoping for a little night life fill the evening air.

These dark walks were - and are - for me a time of talk and thinking.  Over the years of strolling, be they in person or on the phone with a friend, the great issues of the day and the small ones as well were hashed out - if not to conclusion, at least to an expression of opinions.

Over the years I have walked on roads, lanes, paths, high school tracks, sidewalks, dirt roads.  Different places we have lived had had different features.  The first neighborhood we lived in at New Home had an older mix of homes with older trees and interesting street designs.  The second place we live - where we own our home - is a newer neighborhood.  The trees are not so tall and the new homes behind our house - just rows of sidewalks and yards.

New Home 2.0, as you can hopefully see, is far more interesting.

For years I pictured myself more a creature of the dark than the day - something that a job that starts early tends to wreak havoc with.  I can barely stay up beyond 2200 on a good day anymore; that alarm comes far too early.

Yet I have found that if I fail to walk, it has an impact - on my ability to sleep, on my weight, on my mental health.  I do better if I walk in the dark.

So here is to the walkers in the dark, those hardy souls that inhabit the twilight and early night where the stars and lights shine like the lanterns of the Fairy lands, the sounds are mostly natural, and the only monologues or dialogues are those that you bring with you.