When the end is just the beginning ~
Tonight I stood on a bridge on a relatively cool night in Austin, Texas. I stood in eager anticipation for the sun to set, and for the dark night sky to invite thousands of Mexican free tailed bats to emerge for well, the start of their 'day'. Around 500 bats are nested within the cracks and crevices of one square foot of bridge, and from my vantage I may have only spotted a few hundred. There is such a calm and stillness when the sun is no longer visible, right before the sky is darkened. It's by far my favorite time of day, and I hear from my mom, that it was also her father's favorite. The peace that comes from the sun being out of sight, the instant temperature drop...and a period of renewal that sometimes seems to last far longer than it does in reality. All of this cannot be captured in the simplistic marker of "dusk". It was within that stillness, that my senses seemed amplified for action. I was conscious of the road noise, the chatter ar...