Magnificent Morning

Ok, Ok, Ok... So I've been gone awhile. Seems my muse went on vacation for a time. But this morning...WOW! She showed me a sunrise, a magnificent sunrise... and since I didn't have a good camera with me, I guess I'll just have to use words.

It was an average Monday morning, up before the birds, the world still dark. I woke one bleary-eyed, oh so pleasant teenager, then crawled back into the warmth and fuzziness of my blankets for another half hour. I got up and fed the previously mentioned light of my life, got him out the door to meet the bus, the outside world still dark, chilly and wet...just...blah. I trudged up the stairs to wake the other happy teenager and light of my life...all the while thinking how much I'd like to crawl back into my bed for the day. But alas, that was not to be. Duty does call. I fed KID#2 and headed back up to the sanctuary of my shower, hoping that it's warm enveloping flow, in conjunction with that that frothy cup of mocha I had drunk would perk me up. I suppose it worked; at least when I was done, I had resigned myself to another day at work.

I gathered my breakfast and daily caffeine and headed for the car. I got in, buckled up and backed down the driveway. As I turned my head to the left, eastward, I noticed that the sun was slowly making itself known, its rays glowing up into the mostly cloudy morning sky, turning them from gray and white harbingers of rain to fluffy tufts, pink as cotton candy. The sky was beginning to look a little bluer in that direction. Not half bad for a Monday, I thought.

Then I looked to the west, and the sky there was still filled with heavy clouds, tinged with a little pink, looking for all the world like a nasty duststorm or worse was on the way. It was eerie looking, and under other circumstances (like living in tornado alley) I might have been nervous, but not this morning.

As I continued to drive west, and the sun continued to rise behind me, I watched as the clouds became lighter and pinker. As I came up over a rise, looking westward at a dark gray sky that I thought had yet to be graced by the sun, I saw a rainbow appear against the clouds. It was as though a light switch had been flipped on, and a neon rainbow just turned on. It wasn't there, and then, quite suddenly, it was. I leaned forward to see more of the western sky through my windshield as I drove. While I watched, and the sun continued to rise, a second, fainter rainbow began to show itself, just a little higher than the original. I followed the arc of both of them, and was blessed to see the other end of both of them.

I turned my head northward, just to get a glimpse of Blue Mountain, and its crest was glinting yellow and gold under the slow rise of the sun while its slopes remained dark, awaiting the caress of the suns rays.

By the time I got to work, the rainbow was no longer visible to me, and the rain was falling solidly down. I got out of the car and walked slowly towrd the building, walking under the canopy of golden leaved trees, rather than bothering with my umbrella. I stepped on at least a hundred acorns along the way, thinking the squirrels still have a lot of work to do, and listening to the rain slap the leaves of the trees (which, by the way, is one of the most wonderful sounds in the world).

Meanwhile, in the east, the sun continued to rise, doing what it must, despite the clouds and rain.

Nope, not bad for a Monday... pretty awesome, in fact.