Walking the streets in the depth of night, the cold pressing into me from all sides; not knowing if I’m going to survive; it’s so invigorating in the winter months.

It’s such a challenge to face down the cold. Once you breach a certain point of cold you’re isolated in it. It’s beyond cold—it’s a void of lifelessness, and you’re completely alone.

When it’s late enough, all the cars are gone. The industrial and commercial sectors are closed down, aside from various gas stations and all night diners. It’s you and the street lights, and the dimmed houses, people unconscious inside. There are those night fellows; you can see their televisions splashing black and white across the walls, through the windows. How I’d like to say hello, break down the door and introduce myself, though I expect they’d be put off..

Walking in the day or night you can encounter many things you can’t in front of the television. Anything can happen when you’re walking the streets, unlike sitting inside of a home, a dorm, some building, some car, always safe from the elements, always defended by barriers of wood, cement and metal – manmade prisons.

Out on the night walk, we are truly moving about the world, the real world, experiencing our city, and our lives in a very real way, that seems lacking in our “information age” sedentary lifestyle.

Random thoughts spill through my head as crazy ambient music bumps into my ears. The music is an important part of it. For me, it does in some ways cut me off from the complete experience of the night, as I am not hearing the quiet, as much as I am seeing it… though it does seem to push my mind into overdrive as I’m walking. I walk, jump, jog and run in step with the music. The digital sounds replace the silence of the night with something empowering – almost spiritual – that seems to ride with my emotions and describe the environment, adding a special taste to it. It seems to play with the landscapes and the thoughts in my head; it all syncs. It never rides against the grain, and I am constantly fascinated by the feelings, the chords, tunes, beats and loops that wash over me.

And as I go on my long, long walks…often two to three hours, different memories, scenarios, and new possibilities take full form in the mind’s eye, and they become real… like playing makebelieve as a child. They spring up strange emotions in me, these random day dreams, and I often find myself laughing out loud, or feeling melancholy or somber as I walk. I see myself running in all directions, I see myself running into my future self or my past self and what it would be like to gaze into my very own eyes. How it would feel to ask myself a question and to feel and know how I’ll respond. What a crazy thought, I think to myself as I continue on.

During the daytime everything is busy, cars are passing by all the time, people are everywhere, and there is a massive overpowering energy of the whole area just busy and at work, toiling about.

At night, the world is asleep, that massive energy of day has turned to a passive calm of night. A sort of sleep state is over the city, and it’s like the dreams and nightmares of those asleep in their houses magnify the mood about the sidewalks. Everything seems shadowed, and more beautiful. The day often brings out the uglier parts of the land along with the buildings – and the people. Doesn’t the absence of humanity, a tree, or a building beneath the glow of a lamp light in the darkness make everything more mysterious and beautiful? This is the feeling of the night hours, and walking within them is such a mind-trip. The world is quiet, the social day is on hold and there is peaceful solitude at last.

You can just walk for hours into it and if you desire, walk to the sunrise and appreciate the transition as well as the night and the early day. The transition is truly something miraculous. You can’t really see it happening unless you keep watch with a very keen eye. Cars start showing up, porch lights turn on, vehicles are idling in driveways and the overwhelming feeling is of a new beginning – another chance.

Walking in the night is a serene, peaceful, and calming meditation into thoughts, ideas, and a chance for some time alone. Night walking can be a form of meditation, a way to relax, a chance to get some good exercise or an overall visceral experience of the sights, smells, and sounds of a city at rest, silent once more.