Everyday there are two time-between-times. A few brief moments when it’s not quite day, nor is it exactly night. Ancient cultures (and some modern) embraced this time as magic or religious, depending on the society.

The ancient Celts believed this was the time of day when the veil between this world and the next was at its thinnest. One might catch a glimpse of mythical Faery. There’s a magical moment of stillness as the sun hits the horizon. The air changes. The winds shift.

I get why ancient peoples thought there was something supernatural in the air. It’s the betwixt and between.

There is something wonderfully sane in the apparent insanity of contradiction. The ability to embrace multiple truths, and even contradictory truths may be the ultimate definition of sanity. GK Chesterton argues this in Orthodoxy.

“The world has gone insane” is a euphemism for the vitriol and toxicity we hear from every side of every issue. The very fact that are such clearly defined sides is part of what drives the insanity.
Especially our insanity de nos jours.

It’s currently impossible to care about more than one thing at a time.
We are painting ourselves into the black and white squares of a moral and political chessboard, making every issue adversarial and non-negotiable.
It’s right or left.
Black or white.
Day or night, without the possibility for twilight.

And this is, indeed, insanity in the natural world.

Because every day the sun rises and the sun sets.
And for a few magical moments it is neither light nor dark.
Day nor night.
It is dawn.
It is mysterious dusk.

Permit and embrace the twilight.

It is my favorite time of the day.