Chestnut Tree

When the rain falls on the cold paths and the moon shines just enough to see silhouettes in the dark, I become quiet. The world around me becomes silent as my thoughts are getting louder by the second. There’s no need to talk. No reason to make any sound at all.
Nighttime is a great time for emotional people like me.
There’s no need to hide, nobody can see me anyway.
Between the branches, way up in the chestnut tree I climbed every day as a kid, I can finally see what kept itself from me when the sun lightened up the world a little earlier.
With the cool light breeze in my hair and stars glistening up in the sky, my soul finally can rest.
The world is playing its own beautiful melody you can only hear at night after every other sound falls asleep to give the night its much-needed space.
A narrow creek finding its way through the fallen leaves beneath my feet.
The sighs of old trees that are ready to give their left-over energy to younger ones next to them.
The howling of owls. The rustling sounds coming from birds and mice crawling below the trees and bushes.
The world can be so loud sometimes. Hectic. Fast. Just a tiny bit too much for a sensitive soul.
My face must seem so pale with just the moon throwing a weak light on my cheeks. My eyes are addicted to the frail shades of the great silver ball in the sky, seeing little scenes and fanciful sequences that I made up in my mind. Nobody will ever know about them. They’re just for me. For moments, I don’t want to share with anyone else.
When the clock strikes midnight, my mind comes home to a fictional place far from real life. A place not a single soul knows of. A place reserved just for me, my thoughts and my feelings. I created a safe space in my head to escape and hide from the things I don’t want to face. When life gets too loud, the day too much, every place I go is too crowded, I run away. I hide in my imaginary chestnut tree, in my imaginary world, in my fictional forest. I paint a picture in my head, pretending to be there.

When midnight is over and the sun rises to light up the world again and everyone wakes up, I climb down my chestnut tree. I face the crowds, the hecticity, the stress, the noise. It’ll be okay. I know I come back to my forest to clime my tree and stare at the moon as soon as the sun falls asleep.