Night as old as time. Why did everything begin with night, with the darkness?

And with the darkness, silence – as gentle and as strange as love.

Both waited, patient, for she was alone and the conversation with time was about to begin.

Her eyes were closed, to meet the night.

And with the darkness, and with the silence, solitude – the first and the last holy trinity.

Anticipation… the precious moment, the consummation, was almost here.

She stilled her breath so the only sound was the ebb and flow of her own life coursing through her.

She opened her eyes and as she gazed upwards they spoke, all at once and she heard each one speaking in its own time –

4 years
1,000 years
500 million years
15 billion years

And she replied, the matter of her as old as the stars she gazed on.

And in the distance, beneath her, under the slivered halo of the city lights, wonder lay sleeping ‘neath a blanket of light.