In the middle of the night

In my house on this tiny patch of Planet Earth, I am enjoying once again the night hours--the best hours of the day for solitary explorations.  I read, watch art videos, eat cake if I want to.  And I can plan what I'm going to do when the sun comes up.  I rarely make anything in middle-of-the-night hours, but I do the prep. Tonight it's sorting brushes.  I have a large basket filled with brushes I've bought along the way, but until I watched a video last night, I didn't realize the difference between flat, round, and angled brushes.  All this time! and I've just grabbed a brush, any brush, without knowing which ones are made for making which marks. 

As a self-taught-plus-online-classes person, it's amazing how much I never knew! I'm quite sure brushes have been mentioned in many of the classes I've watched--but you know how it goes: You can easily skip and/or forget certain details you don't deem important in any life lesson. Going it alone, there's no expert in house to say, "That's not the best brush if you want to get the line you're trying to make."  But what a thrill it is to finally discover what to do with a tool you've had all along but never used!  Now my brushes are sorted by type and I'm putting each little bundle in its own coffee cup.

Daytime hours are just as good, but different sorts of good.  I know I've shared this poem before, but it's worth re-reading, I think. "The night will be your home tonight/You must learn one thing/ The world was made to be free in." 

Sweet Darkness

Written by David Whyte

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone,
no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your home
tonight.

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

You must learn one thing.
The world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn

anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive

is too small for you.