This week has been personally prolific– far more midnight walks, and therefore more naps. Perhaps I am one of few, but I have always found that the day calls most to be explored when restraints appear that would prevent it. The day is so cut-and-dry in comparison to the liquid night!

I will take any excuse to take a midnight walk, which is best with a very few folks and a loose idea of where you’d all like to go. Just as water tends to flow downhill, and is shaped into the fantastic form of a curving waterslide, the best adventures rush downward to unseen places and are redirected and twisted about by their environment. I love the stars, and I love the city, so between the two there is very little that I cannot turn into an interesting night.

My favorite spot to go is the Materials Building, at night. The daytime garden is nice enough as it is, but it is its own beast in varying times of the day, and the architecture lends itself well to environmental framing, in my opinion. Take a look at this stormy evening:

(Image credit: Author)

This is only one facet of the building; not to follow the bell curve, but my most favorite part is the garden and its window to the sky. There are so many little pockets along the way where, despite being a very public space, you are made to feel like a little mole in his little mole hole. I think it is something to do with the packed underbrush– it is just the perfect environment to lie down in. Since I learned that the garden is built to minimize vibrations for their experiments, I had to stop singing there (this is a lie)– but this entire place is gorgeous inside and out. For me, it is full of hard angles and an overt sense of gravity. It is meant to be seen at night.

(Image Credit: Author)

Things seem very close at night– an errand I might dismiss during the day can grow into a Target trip that consumes the evening whole. If you cannot be entertained smelling different candles and walking into kitschy kitchen supply stores, I do not know what to tell you. It’s just that in the night, anything can happen, and there are fewer passersby for whom you have to pretend to be blind to the mystery of a reflective sidewalk. Walk into that store– make things silly and new in your eyes! Why shouldn’t you? Why shouldn’t this candle contain something palatable and even mind-blowing, unlike its hundreds of bland brothers and sisters?

…have you even tried it?

Yeah, no, it’s still gross. Here is some generational wisdom for you: every candle sold in a store that is not a Candle Store (TM) is a sad, sad candle, and cannot be trusted. If it is flavored like candy or a unicorn, it is actually flavored like a mouthful of perfume and a kick in the teeth. This is one of the few universal truths that seeps into the hours of the day.

Whatever your nighttime experience– however it may interfere with your schedule, or inconvenience your plans– you should have a taste of it. I sincerely believe that it is these things which turn our lives upside-down that lend our paths some of their little magic.

(Image Credit: Author)