Slow down...

…and smell the roses.

Despite knowing this little tidbit of wisdom, I rarely ever get the chance of put it into practice. This would not be the case tonight.

After a session of basketball with my high school friends, I found myself driving back home alone, since all of them head the other direction to their homes. With a cold AriZona Sweet Tea that I picked up from a BP, I noticed something. I wasn’t in a rush to get home, nor were there any cars on the road. The streetlights seem to line my path like those little LEDS on an airplane’s aisle. I turn off my radio, and listen to the sounds of the night. As the crickets play their maracas happily (they stole the spotlight from the birds in the daytime), I realize that I’m driving 15 miles per hour under the speed limit.

In the final stretch of my little cruise, I flicked off the headlights, just to get a feel of what the night looked like without me there, without the light pollution. The amount of fireflies that appeared after the pollution was removed is simply incredible. I could still see the road fully, but instead of a mechanically generated electric bulb, I’m being guided by the transient flickering of nature’s flashlight. By this point I’m driving at around 20 miles per hour, on a road that normally requires one to go 45.

As I’m rounding the corner before the subdivision, I see a group of four deer prancing across the road. Because my headlights are off, they danced so freely; one even stopped by my car, seemingly to ask me if I wanted to dance with them. Alas, the night grew darker, and I had to respectfully decline the generous offer; I rolled into my neighborhood, looking how each house had more lights than the next. With a sigh that marked the end of my little journey, I parked into the garage. As I was walking inside, I looked back at the wilderness, and smiled at the pleasant, albeit unexpected date I had tonight.