It might be that at one point in life I could have become a morning person. All sorts of people that I admire get up early to be healthy wealthy and not so very stupid. But when I was younger all those busybodies who were so concerned with getting things done retired at night and the important work of enjoying the space around me could begin.
Books and scary stories, comics and the subversive minds that poke at all the silly things we do in the light come at night. I fell in love with night. And now morning shuns me and tries to entomb me in bed.
I love how you always relate history, female writers and nature in one beautiful web of revelations Freya! Love this so much
This post reminds me of Joe March from little woman who would often burn the midnight’s oil to get her scripts together. The urge of working through night to reclaim who we are and hour of the wolf are the allegories I deeply need for self transformation. Thank you for providing me with such tools and knowledge. 💜🌼
This is so beautiful-a linguistic meditation on dusk and night. It's turned my attitude about the darkness that's been bringing me down this winter, more so than other winters.
Thank you so much--and yes--love to re-think the conditioning we are given by the world about light and dark, and how to find solace and quiet in the darkness of winters.
Thank you for this! I recently became aware of the historical "two-sleep" phenomenon, also brought up by Roger Kirch. There is BBC article about it at https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220107-the-lost-medieval-habit-of-biphasic-sleep. For those of us night-owls living in places with dark winters, this could be an interesting answer to the lure of candlelight!
I was fascinated to learn that too, having been a light-to-mild-insomniac sleeper most of my life. It was so validating to learn about that--and there are times I've embraced it by setting a candle by my bedside in times of wakefulness, only relying on that small light to write or read by. 🕯
One thing I love about going off-grid is the immediate rewiring of relationship to light and dark. Electric lighting seems so offensive to the senses after a few days without!
I love that you say electric lighting seems so offensive to the senses.
I feel this often but many people don't seem aware of it. A bright fluro light was turned on in kitchen first thing in morning at a friend's house the other day and I had to walk out of the room. The person couldn't understand! Gently gently is the way for me, allow the day to be brightened by the awakening sky. Oh, except for a very very dim light on my computer for writing!
I dislike overhead lighting for that same reason--I need some darkness with light--part of why I find the near-constant-daylight in summer so exposing. I'm so relieved when the night returns in earnest in August.
I was at a residency once where another writer and radio host was working on projects about darkness and night. I'd recently been reading a lot of research about how man-made light (even candles) have disrupted sleep patterns, so we talked about this a lot, how it feels to start and end the days without man-made light. Such a huge difference! She ended up started a beautiful podcast on that subject (that turned into other things, too) called Pondercast. She recently finished that project but it's probably still available to listen.
Did you ever read Jane Brox's "Brilliant"? I learned so much about the history of light through that book, and she's a gorgeous writer!
That's so great those discussions led to a podcast project. So great--and I haven't read that book and am adding it to my list! I'm kind of fascinated by it all having lived where dark and light exchange roles in winter and summer, and how much people still try to live by the false structures of time and light and dark that we are expected to have, denying the realities of the land, latitude, etc.
your words are often a breath for me, and more in difficult moments like this last days, meeting some hard sorrows ; very interested too about the lonely nights lovers, because i'm one, definitively! Even too much, as I no longer know how to go to bed before dawn, even if I dont do anything interesting.. though it creates a real social disability - anyway, it's more extreme those last years and even increasing, I dont know if / how I will be able to reduce or limit this time difference in the future.. So, the words about ancient practice and creators who did the same is comforting ans consoling for me ;)
I just wanted to say you in french we say really "entre chien et loup", but not "loop" : this word doesn't exist in french; and in the mountains and in countrysides, Venus is often named "l'étoile du berger", -even if it's not a star (etoile)
Thank you Anne--I'm so sorry that hard sorrows are visiting you, and that there is something in the words I write that can offer a type of comfort, reassurance. And so interesting--I suspect the "loop" was meant to be loup and the source I had--or me!--had a spellcheck moment. I love that Venus is called that, thanks so much for reading and sharing. 💜
Just lovely, Freya. So much to learn in here, as always. I, too, love the blue hour, but these days I choose the morning.
I'm writing this at 7:55, almost my bedtime! But I'll be up at 4. I'm a morning owl. I'm here to tell you that our duetting pair of great horned owls don't even wait until sunset to start in the late afternoon, and they're still up to serenade me when I get up in the morning for my quiet writing time.
So much in this and I will go back to it again to absorb more.
I love the idea of a pausing ritual in between light and dark or vice versa. Nature provides us with so many opportunities to live "well". If we just care to take notice.
Autumn is my favourite season.
And yes, finding that time to write, create, be with ourselves, is so important. I find mine before the house wakes by rising before 5am.
Thanks for another informative and thought provoking post Freya.
I find it so interesting how many writers I know either work in the early hours or at night--both times of darkness (in most latitudes :) I like that idea of dusk being an invitation to pause too. I crave more of those offering-attention-moments in life.
wow, this is so deep I need to come back and read it all! But every Christmas Eve (and Easter night) I think about how important the night is also for the religious stories. The biggest transformations happen in the dark of the night.
It might be that at one point in life I could have become a morning person. All sorts of people that I admire get up early to be healthy wealthy and not so very stupid. But when I was younger all those busybodies who were so concerned with getting things done retired at night and the important work of enjoying the space around me could begin.
Books and scary stories, comics and the subversive minds that poke at all the silly things we do in the light come at night. I fell in love with night. And now morning shuns me and tries to entomb me in bed.
You have captured perfectly why I’ve always loved the night. I feel most myself and free at night. 🥰
It really is freeing isn't it--the quiet, the dark. 💜🕯
I love how you always relate history, female writers and nature in one beautiful web of revelations Freya! Love this so much
This post reminds me of Joe March from little woman who would often burn the midnight’s oil to get her scripts together. The urge of working through night to reclaim who we are and hour of the wolf are the allegories I deeply need for self transformation. Thank you for providing me with such tools and knowledge. 💜🌼
Thank you so much my friend--and Jo March! Yes--I thought of her too, already reclaiming the hours of the wolf for her work. 💜🕯🧚🏼
Reclaiming the hour of the wolf together 💜🧚🏽♀️
This is so beautiful-a linguistic meditation on dusk and night. It's turned my attitude about the darkness that's been bringing me down this winter, more so than other winters.
Thank you so much--and yes--love to re-think the conditioning we are given by the world about light and dark, and how to find solace and quiet in the darkness of winters.
Thank you for this! I recently became aware of the historical "two-sleep" phenomenon, also brought up by Roger Kirch. There is BBC article about it at https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220107-the-lost-medieval-habit-of-biphasic-sleep. For those of us night-owls living in places with dark winters, this could be an interesting answer to the lure of candlelight!
I was fascinated to learn that too, having been a light-to-mild-insomniac sleeper most of my life. It was so validating to learn about that--and there are times I've embraced it by setting a candle by my bedside in times of wakefulness, only relying on that small light to write or read by. 🕯
This is a beautiful, thoughtful essay on that subject, and the loss of darkness and what it does to human physiology: https://aeon.co/essays/we-can-t-thrive-in-a-world-without-darkness
Always loved the word “gloaming.”
One thing I love about going off-grid is the immediate rewiring of relationship to light and dark. Electric lighting seems so offensive to the senses after a few days without!
Lovely writing, Freya, thank you. 🧡
I've always loved 'gloaming' too. And I so agree--that immediate rewiring is such a great way to describe it. 💜🕯
I love that you say electric lighting seems so offensive to the senses.
I feel this often but many people don't seem aware of it. A bright fluro light was turned on in kitchen first thing in morning at a friend's house the other day and I had to walk out of the room. The person couldn't understand! Gently gently is the way for me, allow the day to be brightened by the awakening sky. Oh, except for a very very dim light on my computer for writing!
I dislike overhead lighting for that same reason--I need some darkness with light--part of why I find the near-constant-daylight in summer so exposing. I'm so relieved when the night returns in earnest in August.
I was at a residency once where another writer and radio host was working on projects about darkness and night. I'd recently been reading a lot of research about how man-made light (even candles) have disrupted sleep patterns, so we talked about this a lot, how it feels to start and end the days without man-made light. Such a huge difference! She ended up started a beautiful podcast on that subject (that turned into other things, too) called Pondercast. She recently finished that project but it's probably still available to listen.
Did you ever read Jane Brox's "Brilliant"? I learned so much about the history of light through that book, and she's a gorgeous writer!
That's so great those discussions led to a podcast project. So great--and I haven't read that book and am adding it to my list! I'm kind of fascinated by it all having lived where dark and light exchange roles in winter and summer, and how much people still try to live by the false structures of time and light and dark that we are expected to have, denying the realities of the land, latitude, etc.
Thanks Antonia, will have a look at that book.:-)
your words are often a breath for me, and more in difficult moments like this last days, meeting some hard sorrows ; very interested too about the lonely nights lovers, because i'm one, definitively! Even too much, as I no longer know how to go to bed before dawn, even if I dont do anything interesting.. though it creates a real social disability - anyway, it's more extreme those last years and even increasing, I dont know if / how I will be able to reduce or limit this time difference in the future.. So, the words about ancient practice and creators who did the same is comforting ans consoling for me ;)
I just wanted to say you in french we say really "entre chien et loup", but not "loop" : this word doesn't exist in french; and in the mountains and in countrysides, Venus is often named "l'étoile du berger", -even if it's not a star (etoile)
Thank you Anne--I'm so sorry that hard sorrows are visiting you, and that there is something in the words I write that can offer a type of comfort, reassurance. And so interesting--I suspect the "loop" was meant to be loup and the source I had--or me!--had a spellcheck moment. I love that Venus is called that, thanks so much for reading and sharing. 💜
Just lovely, Freya. So much to learn in here, as always. I, too, love the blue hour, but these days I choose the morning.
I'm writing this at 7:55, almost my bedtime! But I'll be up at 4. I'm a morning owl. I'm here to tell you that our duetting pair of great horned owls don't even wait until sunset to start in the late afternoon, and they're still up to serenade me when I get up in the morning for my quiet writing time.
thanks so much John. A duet of great horned owls--how gorgeous to write with such a serenade in the early hours. 💜🦉
So much in this and I will go back to it again to absorb more.
I love the idea of a pausing ritual in between light and dark or vice versa. Nature provides us with so many opportunities to live "well". If we just care to take notice.
Autumn is my favourite season.
And yes, finding that time to write, create, be with ourselves, is so important. I find mine before the house wakes by rising before 5am.
Thanks for another informative and thought provoking post Freya.
I find it so interesting how many writers I know either work in the early hours or at night--both times of darkness (in most latitudes :) I like that idea of dusk being an invitation to pause too. I crave more of those offering-attention-moments in life.
Beautiful, glad for the reshare so I could discover this piece.
💜🙏
Also -- Laura Cereta -- incredible, fire, thank you for telling us about her!
isn't she great? ❤️🔥
wow, this is so deep I need to come back and read it all! But every Christmas Eve (and Easter night) I think about how important the night is also for the religious stories. The biggest transformations happen in the dark of the night.
yes! thank you so much for reading!
“wolf-light!!!” Love this so much. I have always been a night owl myself. lol “revenge bedtime procrastination“ Rude!
Isn't it though? :) I love wolf-light too, so perfect.
Brilliantly written
💜🙏