First Light

Yesterday morning the eastern and western skies challenged each other for bragging rights.  As my daughter pulled out of the drive on our way to her school, I glimpsed a wedge of brilliant color between the houses and trees.  I looked east as we moved down the street.  The dawn sky was ignited with bands of apricot, amber and ecru, tinged with a roseate veil.  The sun had yet to emerge from behind the amethyst mountains, but it announced its impending arrival triumphantly this morning.  As we turned the corner, I was now faced with the western sky, punctuated with an incandescent full moon.  It sat prominently amid an oyster sky, surrounded by a luminescent ring of pearl and fawn.  For a second time that morning I caught my breath.  As the car zigged and zagged through the early morning traffic, I was able to watch the developing skirmish between the opposing heavens.  The colors reached their apex for one brief moment – dramatic oranges and golds, fuchsias and salmons to the left; steely slates and dove grays, ceruleans and buffs on the right.  Then, just as quickly, the radiant moon slipped behind translucent clouds of silver, borrowing blush tones from the west, as the startling hues atop the peaks succumbed to more muted flavors.  The duel was over in mere minutes, yet the dramatic performance was assuredly award-winning.

Quotes of the day: 

God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars.                   ~Author unknown, commonly attributed to Martin Luther

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. 

                       ~Albert Einstein

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.  

                          ~Henry David Thoreau