What wonders in the natural world can I see right now?

As I write I it is pitch-black outside still. So, I’ll choose darkness, a daily phenomenon of the natural world that for many forms of life is a time of rest, pause and renewal, yet conversely, also a time of industry, foraging and movement for other life forms.

For many years I ran a weekend retreat program for elementary school-aged Quaker children. One such weekend, some thirty-plus kids and adult staff were at a beautiful, very rural retreat center high up on a hillside that opened up to meadows and pasturelands. It was 2 AM when a child in our cabin announced that she needed to pee. Our rural setting also meant that outhouses, located close to cabins, were the closest and “fastest” method of finding relief, especially in the middle of the night, instead of needing to trudge all the way up to the main farmhouse with the convenience of flushing toilets!. But many children are afraid to use outhouses, so lucky me, it being ‘my turn’ to escort this child in the middle of the night, out of the cabin and up to the closest building with what kids called, “a real bathroom.”

Once finished, hand in hand, we headed back down the path that cut through the middle of an old cow pasture when suddenly this sleepy little second-grader stopped and looked up at the jet-black sky, and said “Wow! This is the most darkness I have ever seen in my whole life!” It was indeed spectacular. And we stood there, silently, just looking up into a star-speckled beautiful, otherwise black sky, and after a few moments, silently began walking back to waiting bunk beds in the cabin.