A Moment of Truth

After arriving home from work at the late hour of quarter to midnight, something simple yet profound caught my attention as I exited my parked car. There was silence. Not complete, however, the ambient song endlessly heard within urban society was strangely absent. Just the wind was salient.

I remained there for a moment, almost astounded by the unfamiliar feeling and watched as the wind blew small seeds from a nearby tree down the back lane in a constant stream, which danced carelessly around the inert objects in it’s path. The wind caressed my body with it’s restless yet subtle breeze, and at that moment, I felt a unique peace of mind.

I looked up at a tall nearby tree that overshadowed my house. Watched as the wind cast among the leaves, mimicking the infinite melody of waves splashing ashore on distant coasts. I stood there gazing into the cascading of leaves and branches, highlighted by the amber glow of an adjacent street lamp which contrasted the tree against the vague dark blue and partially clouded sky, looking for some purpose or truth. Any truth. My mind, contrary to my nature, was soothingly silent but my soul contemplated. For that short period of time, maybe a minute or two, everything seemed right. Though, unfortunately, no distinct epiphany came.

That is until I deviated my gaze to the direction of the wind, onto the horizon, past the crowded roofs of houses at the far end of the lane and past. There in the distance, almost prowling, were vast dark clouds swallowing all light that the massive city struggled to fill the sky. The darkness of those clouds was unnerving, like peeking into the dismal heart of the devil himself, but completely dismissive of everything around it.

Alas, at that miniscule moment before a passing car down a nearby street disrupted the rare peace, it all came to me. Like realizing you left your wallet at home after reaching the store, or forgetting someone or something’s name when it’s relevant and than remembering it later before you fall asleep. The truth of this subtle and comforting peace presented itself in the infinite dark nothingness of those distant clouds; a storm was coming this way. The revelation isn’t in that simple fact, rather, what those clouds and the possible storm represented.

Everything in life is balanced. For cold, there is hot. For male, there is female. For dark, there is light. For benevolence there is malevolence. And as such, for nothing there is something (however, I won’t go into the controversy of the meaning of “nothing”, but I will use it in the way it is commonly defined). Without one, there couldn’t be the other (per se).