It's the day after.....or really the night after. The family just arrived home from a long post-Christmas evening drive. Starting at 6 pm we were driving in the dark already but we didn't care. It was good to be together without any "new stuff" distractions. Now after the kids are settled in bed each reading a new Christmas book, the red puppy and I take one last turn outside.

The night sky is flat out black- no stars, no moon. But the snow seems to give off it's own light and as we walk along the driveway (actually I walk, the puppy careens this way and that with her nose to the ground) I can see across the fields to where the snow melts into the far off woods. The night breezes are quiet right now but I can hear coyotes baying in the distance. There is an entire mark of the horizon that has no light visible; no porch lights blinking between the trees; no street lights, no sign of man. That's pretty amazing since there are signs of people everywhere. But living here, in the country, in the Montana country, there are large swatches of area where there is no sign of man. No houses, no lights, no traffic noises, just trees and creeks and animals and mountains and snow. I can't see any of these things right now, it's too dark. I just know they are out there. I can feel the emptiness of man-made things and the fullness of nature and it's good.