Her husband pushes her out the front door into the darkness. She is so excited to be going out at night. She actually can’t remember the last time she was going somewhere at night due to the ongoing pandemic that people are trying to ignore now.
It is a warm night for the end of December. Just days before it had been sub freezing with wind chills of -27 degrees. Tonight it was windy but in the 50s. The minute she is outside she gets an overwhelming peace throughout her whole body. The wind blows her hair. The Christmas lights and the regular lights are so sparkly. The night sky is so beautiful despite the clouds that block out all the stars.
The Trapped Butterfly takes a deep breath and exclaims that it is so beautiful!
In the vehicle, she sits and looks at all the lights on the dashboard. Again, absolutely beautiful! The Christmas lights on the front porch of her house are so bright! She revels in the neighbor’s Christmas lights and the “new” world that is surrounding her.
As they drive, she honestly feels like she is tripping. Yes, she is high on pot and some wine from dinner, but she hasn’t felt like this in a while. It is true “beginner’s mind” as meditation teaches. She can’t believe how much there’s to see in the darkness.
The way the headlights are shining on the trees giving them an eerie glow. The lights from houses shining through the trees. Looking out into the horizon and seeing the patches of light in the sky from towns miles away from them. It’s a beautiful contrast between empty dark skies and land and the bright lights of towns that are not even visible except for the small light patches in the sky.
She loves catching glimpses of Christmas lights inside people’s houses even if the outside don’t have lights. She loves watching the lights of the headlights reflecting off everything that they are passing. She just feels so much peace and joy in this beautiful moment. She even sees a live deer standing in the ditch.
The Christmas drive through light fair is rather disappointing because it used to pretty much cover the whole fair ground, but it is rather small and she enjoys it as they drive through it twice, but they are both really disappointed that it isn’t anything near what it was before the pandemic started. They haven’t been here in two years due to Covid and being so afraid to even pay for it. They still are forced to drastically limit their contact with people, and her husband always wears masks. But this year she was insistent in going to the light fair as they did every year before Covid since they moved down here. Her husband wore his mask to pay the lady and sanitized his hands before removing his mask.
The peace of the simple act of going for a ride at night to see Christmas lights will hopefully keep giving her the strength to keep being trapped from how she used to live. It’s also teaching her just how much people take everyday things for granted.
The Trapped Butterfly 