The wind whispered sweetly into my ears, as if to remind me of the drunken lull of darkness. Hark! I did. I always do. Give in to the nature. Find it incomprehensible that most people do not take some time out for themselves.

For there is nothing like gazing up at the boundless sky, engulfed by a star-studded blanket; when the moon lets down her veil, revealing the beauty that can make any girl green with envy.

At these times, I cannot help feel that I am the sole creature in the universe and that the entire world is manifest just for my eyes. Only for my eyes. Were it not for scrapping and scratching next door, wouldn’t it have been so much more blissful. Ah, I gather. Not everybody can marvel nature’s thousand gifts.

Suddenly, I am seized by the smell of freshly baked bread wafting up into night air, from, who knows. Having skipped lunch, my tummy growls. But who has time to mull over such trivialities? I only start to contemplate again... An owl whizzes over my head. Headed home, I reckon. Who knows, one more avatar of the Almighty?

The contemplative silence, its essence in emptiness, beauty in not being, and yet all-engulfing.

And amidst this beauty, the twinkling dots in the sky, inviting me to play dots and dashes. I dapple here, cross up there. At these precious moments, I feel free from the chains of time. All shackles are broken: Nothing to hold me back. No bars on my thoughts. No restrictions on my imaginations. No limit on my ever expanding imagination. And then... a night prowler scurries across our front lawn. It rushes through the unraked leaves, its tiny feet crackling the little twigs.

Soon and slowly, the Almighty Sun takes a peek — riding high on his seven-horse chariot. The green carpet begins to glitter. As if God is running his fingers through it himself. Birds

of all hues and colours start to chirp, and flutter, creating, as if, a perfect symphony of Beethoven.

The perfect Mozart concerto! In the words of Laurie Lee: If ever there was blessing in the air, I see it now... in this still early day. How true these words ring in my ears — as this precious night gently gives way to an equally majestic day.