noises in the night

It was 3AM. Adele woke up crying for a bottle, I groggily made her one. As I was leaving her room, I heard a noise outside on the street. It sounded like someone messing with our trash can, or a neighbor's perhaps...should I take a peek out the front bedroom window and see what was happening outside? I bravely walked into the front room not sure what I would see when I pulled back the curtain. I looked down onto the street...nobody, just our blue trash can overturned and our trash all over the street...I was mortified. What a mess we will have to clean in the morning! I wonder what caused this mess. A "soi" dog or a mean hearted Thai person who doesn't like us? I am confused and a bit scared,the fact that it's the middle of the night doesn't help! Then I head back toward our bedroom, I hear a noise again though so I pause before opening our bedroom door. I ponder, should I go and take a peek again? There is definitely someone out there right now, in front of our home, doing who knows what! I am a bit scared but somehow gather the courage to go and take a peek again. I look down onto the street and there he is. He has a cart dolly and on it sits a barrel. He proceeds to go through the trash spilled out onto the street and collects what is recyclable placing those items in his barrel and putting the non-recyclables back into our trash can. I pray for him. I pray God would bless him. I know it sounds absurd but I purposefully don't take our recyclables to the recycling center (yes, they do have them here) because I have known for some time that the poorer folks of this nation make a living by getting those recyclables and exchanging them for money. I am humbled as I watch this man make his living. I am thankful that in some convoluted and weird way I can help him do it. My heart at ease, I go back to sleep praying for the "recycling man".

On a side note but also goes along with the title of this post, the 8 days the airport was closed there was a quiet about our house at night that we've never known. Our house sits in a flight path and so often around 10PM we start hearing flights taking off or landing for most the night. It's become a background noise and doesn't keep us awake but I sure did notice the noise missing. It's amazing how adapted we become to our environments!!!

[A Thai recycling center in Ram 2]