Last night
I worked long and hard
and it was the wee, small hours
before I was ready to go to bed.
I felt drained.

As I passed the bedroom window
I juked out.
A deserted street,
houses in darkness.
Definitely time for bed!

Just then,
a fox appeared,
trotting steadily down the street.
In just a few seconds
he had gone.

My heart leapt.
A fox!
Neighbours used to tell us about a fox
who visited our estate daily in Dundrod
many years ago.
In ten years, we had never seen the fox ourselves
and we had long since given up
looking out for him.

When I spotted the fox
my tiredness vanished.
I grinned
and I was reminded
that every cloud has a silver lining
and that in all of life’s difficulties
we experience gifts from Our God
in the love of our friends and family,
in random acts of kindness from strangers,
in the beauty of Our God’s creation
and sometimes even
in the unexpected sighting of a fox
trotting quietly along a street
in Dundrod
in the wee, small hours.

© Claire Murray