From one who lives alone. Musings at the end of the day.

Stock photo'

The old timers referred to "the shades of night", that time when light is evaporating and darkness is enveloping.

Before the advent of first gas and then electric light those shades were all embracing  -   unless there was a bright moon.

The Deist hymn writer Joseph Addison takes up this theme of evening shades and moon light in his hymn "The Spacious Firmament on High" : 

Soon as the evening shades prevail

the moon takes up the wondrous tale,

and nightly to the listening earth

repeats the story of her birth;

 Charles Wesley in his hymn "Christ whose glory fills the skies" thinks of the shades as a kind of spiritual darkness:

Christ, whose glory fills the skies,

Christ, the true and only Light,

Sun of righteousness, arise,

triumph o'er the shades of night;

Day-spring from on high, be near;

Day-star, in my heart appear.

Oh those shades.   For those of us seniors who are retired and who live alone they bring the hardest time of the day.

Morning will have been filled with useful activity: housework, shopping, walking with the dog, volunteering, attending a lecture, having lunch with a friend etc.

Afternoon will have found its own rhythm: reading a book, preparing an evening meal, taking a nap, visiting a home, hospital  or nursing home bound friend.

Then the evening shades prevail.  What to do?  Who wants to eat-out alone, go to a concert alone, attend the opera alone?

Who wants to watch T.V. alone?  It's much more fun to watch with a spouse, companion or friend,  and to chit-chat, giggle, or criticize the programme as it proceeds.

A kind of melancholy or sadness moves in with the evening shades.  It's not a matter of loneliness, but it has to do with aloneness.

So it is that some of us go to bed early, finding peace in the shades of night, and  to escape from the wistfulness of aloneness.

Before I sleep I have two prayers:

First that I will not die in the night.  It's not that I fear death, but I hate to think that my dear Zion would be left alone and uncared for.

Second from Cardinal Newman

O Lord, support us all the day long,
until the shadows lengthen,
and the evening comes,
and the busy world is hushed,
and the fever of life is over,
and our work is done.

Then in your mercy,
grant us a safe lodging and a holy rest,
and peace at the last.

Amen.

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N.B.  this posting does not arise from any immediate crisis.  I am mentally  and spiritually well.  But I hope that these musings will resonate with others who live alone.

And I am well that many partnered people also feel very alone.

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Christ whose glory fills the skies.

https://youtu.be/Glui1j-w5go


The Spacious Firmament on High  (A Deist hymn based on Psalm 19).

https://youtu.be/Kr8bfRI_BRA

It's one of my favourites, probably because the Tune "Creation" is stolen from Haydn's wonderful chorus 'The Heaven's are telling the Glory of God".

Here is the Haydn Chorus

https://youtu.be/OwqqfbinUDY