In the Still of the Night

This week I’ve been fighting off a cold so I’ve been sleeping/resting a lot. That’s where being retired and living a quiet life is a huge benefit. If I want to nap for 4 hours, I can. Those naps prevent me from being a whining, hot mess. I’m a terrible sick person. The words, “Ugh, I can’t stand feeling like this! My nose hurts, my head hurts, my body hurts…. waaaaaaahhhh.” flow from me like a river. Apparently I need everyone to feel as miserable as I feel in that moment. Hubby is different and I’m trying to be more like him. When he’s sick he goes to bed, says as little as possible and lets his body do its thing until he’s well. This week I definitely channeled him because I slept, lounged, watched Hallmark Christmas movies and cop dramas. It worked because I’m feeling so much better.

But all that sleeping in and napping long has me staying up a bit later tonight. That’s fine though because I love the stillness of the house at night. As I typed that I heard an odd noise coming from the other side of the house. Definitely going to ignore it and continue writing. The tiny dog will alert me to an intruder along with the security system we had installed. I’m still wrapping my head around the idea that we felt the need to install a security system.

We live in a small town, not 500 people small but small enough. There are 7 traffic lights in this small river town. When I was a kid there were only three. Progress. But much like other small towns, crime was something we heard about on the nightly news happening in the large cities in neighboring states. In the past couple of years there have been three murders here. For us that’s a big deal. We’re fortunate to live on a street with great neighbors. Everyone watches out for everyone else while also minding our own business. But people have changed and so we have to change in order to protect what we’ve worked so hard to obtain..

Life is good here, even if we have seen a rise in crime. It’s still a safe town compared to most. In the still of the night the silence is broken by the sound of ship horns as they travel up and down the river accompanied at times by the sound of a train moving people to their destinations.

I’m not thrilled with the path the country seems hell-bent on following and if it weren’t for my faith, I’d be building a bunker and living as far from people as I could get. This country is quickly approaching a day of reckoning and while I believe that as a country we’ll survive, I’m worried about the price we’ll pay. Change doesn’t come without pain and sorrow.

This is what I think about in the deep, dark, still of the night.

It’s a rambling sort of entry to this blog of mine. There was a time when words flowed easily from my fingertips but somewhere along the line I lost the ability to weave a paragraph of thought. So bear with me as I try to find that voice once more.

Peace,

Nim