Twilight

     

     Taking a hike on this crisply cold December afternoon, I watched as day turned to night, light to dark, and marveled at the beauty and mystery of the in-between moment: twilight.  It's not yet dark but it's also not quite light anymore either.  The world is suspended in a moment between an ending and a beginning. The day is about to end and the night is about to begin.  As I observed the beautiful scene of the snow shining and the dark trees branched around me, I suddenly thought of a quote that Edward says in the book Twilight: “It's twilight. It’s the safest time of day for us. The easiest time. But also the saddest, in a way...the end of another day, the return of the night. Darkness is so predictable, don’t you think?”  I really like this quote.  It's very true. Twilight is a bit sad, especially at the end of a day that was particularly wonderful.  The day is ended, and that day will never exist again.  The day that has passed can never be repeated. 

      But there is also beauty in this ending because to quote "Closing Time" by Semisonic, "every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end."  With the end of a day comes the night, which can be frightening sometimes, but after the night there is always the dawn of a new day, a day where anything can happen, and where a person can do or become anything he or she sets his or her mind to: a "new beginning" after a "beginning's end."  There is such beauty in this, and most of us don't really take a moment to realize this beauty, including myself, but being in nature always helps me to realize the beauty in not only this particular moment but in all moments. 

     Nature connects me to the world around me and brings me wonder and realization of how blessed I am to live in such a world of contradictions: of endings and beginnings, of comfort and danger, of fire and ice, of predictability and unpredictability.  Each day and night is always unique, but the progression between the two can always be depended on.  Always after day will come night and then day again, continuing on and on until the Earth's life ends.  Our own lives correspond with this progression of time.  Our days and nights are both different every day but continue in the same progression day after day and night after night until our lives end.  We may not know for sure what comes after death, but if it's anything like the wondrous contradictions of life on Earth, then it should be simply marvelous.