Happy Earth Day!
Have you ever gotten up early, just to see the sun rise?
I remember my first time, when I was just a kid, at camp. I woke up in the cool gray pre-dawn, slipped into my shorts and top, and snuck out of the tent.
Outside the air was still and damp, smelling faintly of woodsmoke from the previous night’s fire.
I walked down to the lake, crunching on pebbles. There was barely a ripple. The water looked gray-green and shimmered faintly, breathing out misty vapors that collected and spiraled into dancing tendrils, reaching for the clouds.
Across the lake, the sky had a faint pink tinge. The horizon, barely glimpsed through the trees, glimmered pale gold.
I sat on a log, and waited.
The first birds began to sing. Sleepy chirps and warbles, single notes, as they warmed up for the dawn chorus.
Gradually, the air lost its excess humidity. The mist fairies on the lake twirled more languidly, and then departed for their twilight realms.
The birds broke into full song, as the sun peeked shyly over his cloud covers.
The trees blocked my view, but gave me an enchanted vision, as if the brilliant light of the sun was, instead, fiery lanterns, elf-carried, climbing higher and higher through the branches.
The sky turned rose, then gold, then white as they slipped upwards with surprising speed.
Finally, they rose to the very top of the tree, and joined their lanterns into one glorious fiery ball, which they flung high into the sky.
Sunrise!
The lake woke, and chuckled as it reached tentative fingers to the shore. It shivered, and turned blue, to reflect the bluing sky.
The sun tore off the last of his clouds, and looked down with his shining face.
It was day.
Picture Attribution; Sunrise by Marcus Used under a Creative Commons 2Generic License. Resized, but otherwise no changes made.