I generally enjoy the nights when I have the house all to myself and things are really quiet.
It gives me time to rest, recharge and get my bearings again.
But every once in awhile, the night makes noises.
A few weeks ago, just after Thanksgiving, I had one of those quiet nights at home.
I watched movies, did some online Christmas shopping, worked on a few pages of my book, and went to bed early.
At about 2 a.m., I was startled awake by a loud THUMP from downstairs.
Heart racing, I jumped out of bed, grabbing the flashlight with the long handle that I keep next to my bed to fend off intruders.
I walked slowly down the stairs, waving the flashlight in front of me.
I tried not to turn on any lights to maintain the element of surprise.
I was terrified, but determined to defend my castle.
I swept the entire house (even the closets) and didn't find anything or anyone.
There wasn't even anything out of the ordinary on the floor, which might have signaled that my cat was the culprit.
I convinced myself the noise must have come from outside and went back to bed.
It took me awhile to get back to sleep.
Scenarios were running through my head, all of the things that could have happened if someone really had been in my house. But I eventually dozed off.
By the time I woke up, the incident was a distant memory.
I don't remember what day of the week this was, whether that morning was a weekend day or a weekday. 2020 has been having that affect on me.
But I know I made a cup of coffee and then started thinking about planning my day. Which included what to make for dinner for my boys.
Ah, it was a Tuesday! I only remember this because they were coming home to me from their Dad's that day. Does it really matter that it was a Tuesday?
When I opened the freezer to take the meat out for dinner so it could thaw, I solved the mystery.
There, next to the bag of green beans from Costco, was a bottle of Sangria I had put in the freezer to chill on Thanksgiving Day.
It had frozen and burst and that was the noise that woke me up the night before.
I sighed at the mess in my freezer - the deep red wine had dripped down the sides and all over the food on the two shelves below.
I ended up having to completely disassemble my freezer and wash it all out, rinsing bags of frozen vegetables and wiping off packages of ground beef and whitefish.
My freezer hadn't been cleaned in quite awhile, so I guess I killed two birds with one stone there. Felt productive anyway.
And I knew what the night noise was, which gave me some comfort.
Like most things in life, those phantom noises do have an explanation.
Sometimes we get to the bottom of it and figure out where the noise came from.
And sometimes we never do and it remains forever a mystery.
But that doesn't mean that there wasn't a reason.
I guess you could call it faith.
Faith that behind every random event there's a meaning.
Faith that our lives have purpose.
I have faith, that this year and all that we've been through, has happened for a reason.
I know I'm learning lots of lessons from it.
Not the least of which is this...
Chill the wine in the fridge and NOT the freezer!
Here's to life lessons, friends. May we all continue to learn from them.
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