le vignaud
If the earth needs night as well as day, would it not follow that the soul requires endarkenment to balance enlightenment?
I have once again returned to my little house in the French countryside. It feels good to have returned here – a warm comforting feeling, which can be so rare when one is traveling. This mixed with the reuniting with old friends pleases me well.
I was unsure what I would find when I arrived. Unsure if things would be the same, unsure if anyone would remember me here, or if they would even be here themselves. But things are the same (it seems remarkably little has changed), and this will be a wonderful place to rest my weary feet for a time.
The leaves are wet and fragrant underfoot. The ground is cold and soft from the recent rains, and the sun struggles even to climb over the tops of the trees only to fall so quickly back over the horizon. The days are shorter now than the last time I rested here, and winter seems to be setting in for sure.
In the mornings, a thick mist covers the village, blotting out the distant hills and softening all sounds. The roosters crow, again and again, calling the sun to its task in vain. The world continues to sleep under its icy blanket every day until nearly exactly noon, when suddenly the day awakens. In the span of a few minutes, the first shaft of sunlight pierces through to the dew-spent grass, and soon the mist had dissolved as if it had never been. The landscape of opaque pearl is suddenly transformed to sparkling diamonds and blue skies. It seems a miracle, and leads me to wonder whether it is really the clock that follows the sun, or vice versa?
I walked to the river and let the newly found sunshine slowly warm my bones. A woodlark rose to the sky, was lost to sight, and became just a faint, dear song. A family of deer sat amongst the dew-spangled grasses in the pasture. Perhaps they had not yet noticed their misty cover had been lifted, though they seemed completely indifferent to my passing, and didn’t bother moving from their golden sunbath. I spent the day immersed in this wonderland of beauty. It seems the day had come to quickly, and caught the earth off guard – naked and not yet disturbed by human footsteps.
Towards evening, I found myself at the top of the ridge, watching the silky grey smoke rise from the chimneys in the village below. The sun set behind the blue and purple hills, carrying the relative warmth of the day away with it. The world around me fell into slumber as quickly as it had woken, leaving me alone; a sole survivor, as the mist rolled back over the leafless trees to bid the world goodnight.
