Finally at the end of that long, rainy, glorious day,

I turned out the lights and fell into bed.

At first there was too great a buzz of things still to be done in my head,

but at last I could listen, first to the silence, and then, through it,

to the infinite number of sounds an old house contains in the night.

All these sounds together made the house feel like a ship.

I did not know where the ship would take me, but I knew it was snug and beautiful,

and I know that it's passenger was both inwards and outwards bound.

Mary Sarton