Living in the Dark

When you work third shift there comes a point where you begin to feel a bit like a vampire. You leave for work at ten and you get home at six. You can go days without seeing the sun. On the occasion when you finally do something in the mid-afternoon (family birthday party, festival, etc...) you find yourself  scowling on the verge of hissing at that cruel bright orb in the sky. It's hot and it's bright and becomes a horrendous inescapable presence. You never come around because you live in a separate country as the rest of your social group. When you are there you are a pain in the ass because you are off your schedule and basically jet-lagged when everyone else is just 'enjoying this beautiful sunny day!' 

Then there are the benefits, those strange and rare perks of a life lived in the darkest hours of the day. Provided you are someone who likes or can handle being alone, you will have no limit to the solitude you might want. It's quiet throughout the night and that quietude reaches a fever pitch in the small hours of the morning. It's beyond peace and it's beyond tranquility, it is other worldly. In these magical hours creativity feels like it's coming in great torrents and tidal waves. Like that gate barring our access into the creative realm has been unlocked and left unguarded. You form a more personal relationship with the moon and it becomes the cosmic orb with which you most readily identify.  The light of the moon and the stars can come to feel serene, where once it felt cold and pale. You learn the value of light when you live in the dark, and whereas the mid-day sun is overly bright and oppressively hot the sunrises you are awake for everyday are warm and glorious.