A Song in the Night
One night last May when my mother was in her final weeks and I was always on alert expecting an emergency call, I was unable to sleep, lying awake at 3AM with anxious thoughts and a runaway imagination. I tried to reason myself into a calm state, but you know how that goes. At 3AM one’s ability to reason is generally fairly weak, and the more I tried to calm myself, the more the mental loops tightened into knots.
Gradually a sound from my open window began to penetrate the tangle of my mental gymnastics. Could I be hearing birdsong? A bird singing in the dark? At 3AM? It must be my overactive imagination… But it persisted, and I got up and put my ear to the open window. Yes, it was a bird! I recognized the song of a Gray Catbird.
Stepping into my muck shoes, I slipped out the back door to walk around our yard, moonlight dancing with shadows of branches and twigs– a calligraphy of dark and light at my feet. Despite brilliant moonlight, the shrubs were all shrouded in darkness, making it impossible to see the singer, but his music continued for as long as I walked. Even after I was back inside I could hear him as I drifted gently into sleep to the lullaby of a Catbird’s song.
By day the Lord directs his love,
at night his song is with me–
a prayer to the God of my life.
Psalm 42:8
4 Comments
Shauna
This was so beautifully written, I could totally see and hear your descriptions and that verse fits perfectly with your narrative. What a delightful story.
Peggy
Thanks so much for sharing this. It reminds me of sitting outside calmly during a break from “Having tea” with the authorities of the country where we lived in 2019 and knowing God’s presence in the the sound of the breeze and the birds.
melissafischerartist
It’s wonderful how quiet moments in God’s creation can ease so much stress.
melissafischerartist
Thank you, Shauna!