Friday, March 24, 2006
(A Night Meditation)
Cricket songs are night sounds, much like rain falling on the roof, a mocking bird singing his ancient night song, or the neighbor’s dog barking in the distance. Crickets lull us to sleep and keep us company when we are awake. While we do not often think about it, every once in a while we spend some part of a night lying awake; sometimes for just a few moments, sometimes for a long time.
Worry and poor health are the most common reasons for this. Falling in love, family, and work are also reasons we do not sleep well. A poor mattress also makes a contribution to many a sleepless night.
During that awake time our minds are usually active, and the sleepless periods often include moments for reflection or prayer. Most of us are more perceptive at night, aware of the more sensitive aspects of our lives. In darkness we see ourselves as we really are, and we become more aware of our spiritual infirmities, as well as our spiritual strengths. During sleepless night hours we tend to honestly evaluate the real person occupying our body space. Darkness without the distraction of light can reveal the deeper nature of our true selves, and our fundamental need to love and receive love from others. During these short sleepless minutes we plan for much of our personal everyday living.
We think we see things in proper perspective only in daylight, but this is not always true. There are things we can only see at night. Have you ever seen a twinkling star during the day light hours? Or a firefly? Or moths circling a lightbulb? There are times of awareness that only come during the night when we allow our minds to escape from daily burdens. These are moments during which we can take a realistic look at our secret self, you know, the person we hide from the rest of the world, the person only God can know.
Last night I lay for a while looking up at the dark ceiling, my mind filled with thoughts, my imagination hard at work. I could feel the cool night air blowing over me from the open window. Most of my deliberations concerned the problems of every day living. Have you ever had nights like this where you just laid there and thought.
The awareness of a common, taken for granted, sound suddenly interrupted my contemplations. Once again I became aware of the ancient song of the crickets. Their melody crept in from the garden, through the open window, and over the window sill. I could not help but wonder at the strength and beauty of the cricket song. It is a voice we usually have to be alone to hear; a sound that lulls us back to sleep, or gently wakes us, or sings accompaniment to our thoughts.
While I listened, night's darkness appeared no longer quite so somber, and a pleasant sensitivity crept into my thoughts. Caught in the frantic business of life, I had not listened to cricket music for a long time. Actually, I could not remember the last time I heard their song. When was the last time you heard cricket songs?
While I listened, I wondered why crickets need darkness to sing. Why don't they carol in the sunlight? Only in the shadowy darkness of night does nature release this canticle of primeval sound; a sound so basic, so much a part of us, that it most often goes unnoticed.
My first consideration was to go my library, and look up crickets in the encyclopedia. I wanted to discover why and how crickets sing at night. But then I realized this scientific approach to cricket songs would take from the beauty of their melody. Besides, it was cold outside the warm blankets. I did not need that information to enjoy their carol. I remember learning somewhere that crickets sing by rubbing their legs together. That appeared outside of reason, but it did have a certain charm to it. This unproven fact would have to satisfy my curiosity for the moment.
While I lay thinking about the crickets, I realized I no longer worried about the family bills, the children, my work. My thoughts moved away from these heavy concepts to contemplation of the natural world. Man’s ability to move from one thought to another completely different thought is truly one of God’s rare gifts, a true blessing.
Cricket songs remind us of nature’s consistency. They remind us of permanence. Of Stability. Of Balance. These are the strengths of the natural world. If we allow permanence and stability and balance into our lives, they will make us strong individuals, and enable us to better cope with both the adversities and the fullness of life.
I believe lovers hear the cricket song more often than the rest of us. Loving fits comfortably into night; and, like the cricket song, does not need bright sunlight to thrive. Lovers have an open mind to beauty. Remember?
There is a lesson for us here. All of life emits an essence, a sense of song, a communiqué to others. Animals and birds communicate with each other, and we observe this connection. Man is especially involved with forms of communication. His entire life, his words, actions, even thoughts, send out a message to the world around him. But few of us think about the song we sing for others. We are not always aware of the effect our words and actions have on others.
Can our song, like the cricket song, be heard in the darkness? Can it be heard on cloudy nights as well as moonlit nights? Whether or not we like it, our song is always heard by others. Most of us need warmth and sunlight to be comfortable enough to carol our message, the ballad of ourselves, to the world around us. We write the words to our song, and we control the tempo with our minds, and most often the listener hears only what we want them to hear. But no matter how hard we try, our song reflects all that we are, all the hours of each day.
A friend of mine worked with me for forty years, working as I did with children, working in the church and with boy scouts and 4-H. He was one of those men who was always there for everyone. When he got too old to work, he found himself widowed, sick and unable to take care of himself. Most of his generation had already died, his children were grown and living in distant states. He was alone. But others had heard his song, and suddenly there was help, help with money, help with his care and help even cleaning his house. With tear filled eyes he told me about this one afternoon while I helped him work in his little garden.
We easily recognize how much good, how much beauty, how many positive messages have come from those who sang their song in darkness, from those who suffered in the gloom of failure and repression? Milton wrote in darkness, and Beethoven struggled in the gloomy world of silence to present us with his great symphonies. How many other writers, musicians and artists have caroled their song, or left us their message from the shadows of persecution and despair? How many acts of courage and heroism created themselves from the darkness and dungeons of human suffering and travail?
. We are not compelled to sing as is the cricket, but we do it anyway. The cricket appears destined to spend the night singing his endless song. We are destined to spend a lifetime singing our song. Like it or not, just like the cricket, we are often oblivious to the content of our song, or the message we give to the world around us. Most often we don't care how others judge our actions. We don't think, and we don't love as we should, or as we did in our youth. Although our minds can easily accept natural beauty, we dwell instead on mundane activities of daily living, on aches and pains, and forget to serenade life.
Cricket songs can be important in that they come upon us in darkness and remind us of the God who has been near us all along, but gone unnoticed. Our eyes, dazzled by bright sunlight, often do not recognize Him. God is present when ever there is beauty, not the beauty of man’s creation; instead, the beauty of God’s universe, and the natural world. His beauty is also reflected in how we live our lives.
The cricket songs remind me I am an integral part of the universe and its plan, part of nature, and a basic part of my own little world. They also remind me that I am a man who keeps forgetting God. I forget that I must follow through with whatever is planned for this life and stop asking the eternal question “Why”?
We ask ourselves about the purpose of our life. Why are we here? What is them purpose of this existence? What am I supposed to accomplish? How can I get the most of my years here in this world? In answer to these questions we can find meaning to our lives by living it to the fullest, by loving ourselves and others, by looking carefully at our purpose and destiny, by giving back to life more than we take from it.
While I listened to the crickets, I could not but wonder about my own song. What am I singing to the world? What message am I leaving for others to hear, or see, or read? Is my song filled with the joy of living that is so much a part of the cricket song? Does it comfort the listener? Does it tell my brothers and sisters we are not alone? Does it reflect God’s love for man. Does it echo my love for others. Does it lull the listener to comfortable, secure and restful sleep; or does our song simply pass by unnoticed and unappreciated?
**Prayer
Father God. Help me to see your love reflected in the beauty of the world you have placed around me. The next time I hear cricket songs, make me more aware of the song you are singing to me and the song my life is singing to the world around me. Help me to find the strength and courage to reach out and share my song with someone else, to do just one simple act of kindness today and again tomorrow.
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