Twilight Time

Il crepuscolo, the twilight time.  The time when the earth sighs a farewell to the day as it parts and the beauty of the sunset yields to the dusk.

The shadows begin to lengthen.  Traffic slows, people start to talk in hushed tones as the final bells from the churches are heard, calling the faithful to vespers.  The doves respond.  "Heavenly shades of night are falling"

"When purple-colored curtains mark the end of day"..........  

It's hard to write about my personal feelings on a morning such as this, the day after yet another threat to our society.  I had intended to write something dramatically different, about how each day of my stay in Assisi was punctuated by the arrival of sunset and then the magic time of twilight when I was reminded each evening of how safe and at rest I really was.  This was the view that I enjoyed from the windows of my apartment at 20 San Paolo.  I never failed to take it all in, to derive a sense of all being right with the world. My plan was to write something sweet and uplifting, an addition to the pieces I am collecting as I move toward the writing of a memoir.  A time and place that sanctified my existence and filled my heart with only goodness. 

But yesterday, twilight brought us a different view.  A beautiful day that should have ended with the slowing of traffic, ended instead with the blare of sirens from hundreds of ambulances, the shock and horror of witnesses, anything but hushed tones as people greeted the evening.  As yesterday's sunset gave way to dusk, a country's people welcomed fear and anxiety once again. The celebration of a day well spent, a day of triumph to so many, ended with grief and unanswered questions. A finish line that marked instead, the end of taking so much of life's pleasures for granted.  

The shadows, they have lengthened and again, purple-colored curtains are marking the end of day, a day that will burn into our memories for a very long time.