Sounds of Silence

Hello, Darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk to you again
About a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
- Simon and Garfunkel

I love the night. I always have. It brings a sense of calm that is found nowhere else - and smells that are not present during the day. It has a life of its own. There are times I open my windows, close my eyes, and just breathe in the night. And its transforms me. I think that is why I don't like this shift of going to bed earlier and getting up earlier. I get the same amount of sleep, and there are beautiful things about the morning and the sunrise, but they do not restore me like the night does.

When my girls were little, we had a book called, "Walk When the Moon is Full." It was about a mom that took her children out for a night walk every full moon for a year. She wrote about the things they saw on those walks and it was a simpl,e beautiful book. We did that. Went on our own midnight walks during the full moon for a year. We had that luxury, me being an at-home mom and homeschooling my daughters at the time.

When you're away from the city, and truly experiencing the night, it does not place demands on a person. It is a time to let go, relax, and experience a different state of being. And at those times, I am most likely to have my visions come to me. I don't know if we all have it and some are just more sensitive to it, or if only some people have it. I read a book once called, "The Intuitive Principal: A Guide to Leadership." It was about how good leaders pay attention to all the surrounding sensory information without even realizing it, and how to develop that part of leadership to benefit your students and staff.

When I can truly clear my mind, I am amazed at what "percolates" to the top, the visions or premonitions I have. There are times I know it goes beyond the sensory information I have available and I've learned to trust it. I know it comes from the Boe side of the family. My sister has it, my cousin has experienced it. We just guard it is all.

I knew I would marry Greg long before I started dating him. I knew to drive to my sister's house at 10pm with a newborn baby in tow because I had a premonition something was terribly wrong and only months later did she tell me she had planned to kill herself that night. I have had premonitions about my daughters that I still hold tightly. I have heard my mother's voice at unexpected times. These things do not make sense to the rational person. And yet they are.

That is why I need the night. To clear my head. So I can hear everything I am supposed to hear, and not all the noise and clatter of the daytime.