"Just look up... relax and let yourself experience it all. Feel it and taste it and smell it... the wind in the grass next to your ear, the sultry feeling of the breeze across your legs and toes. Talk to those stars. Call it all in. Pay attention to every little thing and enjoy the hell out of it."

It was one of those amazing moments when she hinted that there was more to her. She possessed a seemingly infinite well of passion and depth -just right there- but no one could ever quite reach. We laid together there in the grass for hours in a silvery beautiful kind of silence. The words were not there right then.


Walking alone in the twilight time, she used to like to pretend that she had a whole audience watching her every move. An announcer would be telling the crowd what the next trick entailed just as she threw the old broom horse that doubled for a baton up into the air. In her head, whole symphonies were composed to the rhythm of her steps. She could change the stage to an arena with a look at the right oak tree. Suddenly, she was a pop star singing “I Think We're Alone Now” into that same broom horse.

The way the night’s calm veil accented her innocent beauty as I watched from afar was inexpressibly gorgeous. Sadly, life has since covered most of that luster with insecurity. Of course,I will always know there is so much more waiting to come out to the spotlight again. I bet she just has to find the right oak tree to give the “curtains up” signal to.


I was sore from riding in the car all day. Dusk was rolling into night and there didn't seem to be any hope that this guy was ever going to stop the car. We were having a great time for a first date, talking and joking and singing to classic rock radio. On a night like this one, a car was just too small to hold it all. Plus my ass hurt.

"Hey, let's stop and go for a walk or something - we aren't really going anywhere in particular, are we?"

"I dunno, hadn't really thought about it. Do you know a good place to walk at nine at night?"

"Nope, let's just stop and walk around."

Three hours or so later, we ended up in a place I will never forget. This is still my most pleasant dreamscape. I remember exactly the way the huge, pink moon reflected off the lake and that sacred light that was all over us. Those trees seemed to have a special energy that vibrated through and around us. It made leaves rustle and speak without wind. It's hard but sometimes you just have to believe in magic.


Excerpts taken from my own Night Gallery of beautiful memories.