On Night Walks and Music

Taking walks at night has always been a thought-clearing experience for me. I think this phenomenon stemmed from taking "night walks" with my parents when I was very, very small. Vermont is beautiful all the time, but it's especially quiet and peaceful late at night, when the darkness is vast and open, the stars twinkle brightly in the distant heavens, and the stillness makes you feel wonderfully small and insignificant.

The stillness of the fields in Vermont translates very well to the beaches in Massachusetts. I love walking along, listening to the waves splash on the shore and watching boats' lights shine on the horizon. The feeling of freedom - no one watching, no one caring - is what allows me to really feel the presence of God. Because I know that while I feel small and insignificant, while no one is watching or caring, the God who created this amazing vastness is also the God that created my small, insignificant soul, and it doesn't feel so insignificant anymore.

Tonight I didn't go to the beach, but I did decide to walk around campus at night. Not quite the beach, but still. I initially just intended to walk around the quad once to feel productive or something, but I ended up walking all over campus because I was thinking so much. I didn't even know I had that much to think about. In the beginning, it was mostly asking questions with an undercurrent of a hymn stuck in my head. Does that ever happen to you? Background music to your thoughts? Maybe that's just me. Slowly, the background music started getting louder; it gradually overtook the questions, and I realized that I had Jesus Loves Me stuck in my head.

Why is it that a song that you normally just pass off as a simple children's song suddenly hits you with a message that nearly brings you to tears? It doesn't just have to be a kids' song either. Beethoven's 7th, Tchaikovsky's 5th, Saint-Saens' 3rd, Brahms' 1st symphonies have all had the same effect on me at one point or another. Without warning, a melody or specific lyrics unveils a brief glimpse of the heart of the Creator, and regardless of hopes and joys, fears and sorrows, you recognize for a few blissful moments that nothing matters more than his love for his creation. Nothing on earth can replicate that kind of beauty.