The empty woods were full of small sounds.  The unending rows of towering pines groaned and creaked as the wind whispered through its tops.  My footfalls were silent on the blanket of needles as I hiked alone through the woods.  Pine gave way to hardwoods as I climbed the gentle slope of the small mountain, soon standing solitary atop the forested peak.

A still breeze quietly roared while the waves churned over the rocks and sighed up the sand at the silent lake.  All the camps were boarded up, their owners off to warmer houses and fall obligations.  The summer sun and vacation exploits now a memory.  I stand in the wind exulting in the loud silence and full solitude.

The house is still with only the quiet hum of a dutiful appliance and the crackle of the woodstove.  The children away at activities and nothing to interrupt the quiet of an empty room.  I listen intently to the silence and breathe deeply in the peace of the moment, alone with my thoughts.

I love people and treasure relationships, finding great joy and fulfillment in connections and friendships.  I relish my children, celebrating family and friends.  I love the bustle of a busy Sunday morning as well as the joy of summer activities.

Yet I find the silence of solitude to be a sweet and wondrous experience.  It is both made sweeter by the time with people before, and enriches future times of fellowship by recharging my heart and mind, preparing me to once again invest life in others.

Being alone is not a retreat from others, nor an experience of absence, but instead, a fulfillment of those experiences by giving me room to reflect, to listen to the quiet, and to fully enjoy the fullness of nature and time.

The darkness was as deep and uninterrupted as the silence that accompanied it.  Visual & auditory absence that was amplified by the coolness of the enclosure.  The dimensions of the room were impossible to ascertain in the complete absence of illumination.  Whatever the size of the room, it was capacious in what it held for others.  This space held immeasurable sadness, hopelessness, fear, and even despair.  It contained the ruined dreams of many and the crushing disappointment of a committed few who had thought that this shadowed space was an impossible likelihood.  Its darkness seemed the full antithesis of all that it now concealed.

It had begun in light.  A need for light had drawn it, a call for light had predicted it, and its arrival had repeatedly been announced by light.  Those who did not understand nor appreciate it had nonetheless had found their attention captivated by the light.  The light had demonstrated such power that even those who lacked any capacity to see the light had suddenly and joyfully beheld it, forever changed by its entrance into their lives.  Others, who had prided themselves on the appreciation of light had found this too bright and had embraced a blindness that was more comforting than its piercing brilliance.

Whether they embraced it or resisted it, none could deny the presence of something that seemed to hint of the first light ever to shine into a void.  There was a timelessness, an ancient quality to the light that yet seemed to announce newness and birth.   No one encountering this light was left unchanged or unimpressed by it.  Men and women were driven either to joy or to madness by the gentle relentlessness of its power.

Suddenly all those who had basked in the glow found themselves stumbling and crying, unable to see ahead.  Their disorientation all the worse for having seemed to see so clearly before.  The one thing that had been clear in the light now was clouded in uncertainty and defeat.

The light had passed away with the setting of the sun and had not returned with the dawn.  Night had become permanent behind a large stone, blocking out not only light, but hope and victory.

Another sunset confirmed the finality of the darkness over the light.  As a third day dawned with sudden truth for those who beheld a not-final resting place.  In victory, Light had escaped.

This was inspired by a writing prompt: “Light Escaping” in the GCD Writers Guild. If you are a writing & interested in joining the Guild for encouragement & challenge in being a Gospel writer, click the badge on the right.