Night
That is when the shadows are liable to sends chills from the base of your neck to the middle of your back, and the snapping branches and rustling leaves make your hair raise on end. Of course, you do not need to deal with any of this if you live in the country. You could just stay inside and ignore the sweat-inducing thrills there are to be had with a slow night walk; but that is not for me. I love them. I enjoy letting my imagination get the best of me. And I enjoy when I can get beyond the mere jumpiness caused by the darkness. Then is when you really find an appreciation for the night. Everything is the same during the night as during the day, there just is no sun to illuminate the landscape so clearly. That is why it is so wonderful. Because it takes away the simplicity of daylight. There is an excitement to be had in finding something secret, something hidden. And the most simple things can be hidden by the night, lending the commonplace a mythic quality.
Getting beyond my love of country nights, living here in the city for the past couple years has given me a contrasting experience with night. Well, living on campus had the semblence of a sort of small town night, even though if you really examined the sky you would find that it was being smothered by the conglomeration of city lights. However, living here in the duplex has allowed me to see that phenomenon at its strongest. When I walk outside at night, the sky is never dark, especially to the west; it is also so much stronger with cloud cover, which of course is because it catches more of the light. There are not enough trees around the area to lend their shadows to give the appearance of night. And so, outside of my door, there is a constant twilight haunting the city. I feel like it is a compound metaphor for numerous things in life, all of which are outside of the path of my thought; but, I know they are there. I feel them when I look at the twilight.