Bottling up Peace, Wrapped in Blue Dusk

Warm, wet air hit my lungs. This is the time of year to have my feet thudding on the ground. The sky was muddled with grey stratus clouds just beginning to clear away. There has been too much grey lately. Too much rain hitting the earth, and raining on my life. I’m ready for the clouds to part.

I love the blue light of dusk. I wanted my two friends with me: blue dusk, and the big dog. The big dog is my protector; the blue dusk is my therapist. My two feet hit the pavement, four feet followed, and warm still air blew past us in the blue dusk. I felt a thrill roll through me. I don’t run often, but every now and then I feel the call. The body needs to move swiftly sometimes, airing out the whole system.

Mocking birds sang in their confused way, desperate to fit in. Mimosa blooms had been manhandled by the rain, knocked roughshod off a tree somewhere. Their perfume filled my nose. The expanse of sky in front of me, opened up by the straight road, was the color of peace. That perfume, that peace— through it I could feel infinity again. Looking up into the clouds—endless, but always out of reach—there was something about life hidden there. Or maybe it was hidden in my mind, and only accessible through looking at that endless sky. The answers were there, just out of reach. A deep breath filled me up, and I was full of that mimosa perfume and the blue dusk.

Big dog got tired. That heavy coat slowed him down. We stopped and walked, rounding the corner slowly, still chasing the sun. I didn’t want it to leave altogether. I wanted that bit of light, and that brief opportunity. When the light was gone, I would have to go home, and with it goes all that perfection. Life’s answers lost again.

The sun fades fast so late in a day’s life. Gold streaks turn to pink, pink fades to purple, purple to blue, blue to black nothingness. No starlight tonight.

Somehow I need to find a way to carry blue dusk with me, so that I can be with it whenever I like. Starless nights need blue dusk to soothe them. Grey rainy days need blue dusk too. Maybe my pictures have bottled it up, at least just a little bit.