First Light
Waking up wide awake, my mind racing, I am not going to fight it this time and not go back to sleep. Instead I quietly get my on my blue jeans and a shirt- to try to cut down on bug bites when I go outside.
I’m typing this into my laptop, sitting on my back porch, coming outside just before ‘First Light’, I didn’t know that term until I found it looking thru the weather App on my phone last week. Its 550am, and so beautiful out now, mid 60’s, quiet, peaceful… I hardly ever get to do this… not only just before the sun comes up, but before ‘First Light’ — I get to watch the black sky go thru its morning stretching- from dark blue to light blue to a watercolor sky that starts almost white at the ground and blends/fades into a turquoise, a lighter blue then Baby blue, then a normal royal blue, as the darkness loses to the light of a new day. Not a cloud in the sky this morning. To watch my backyard go from darkness towards light, slowly seeing shapes- the colours of objects first, blurry: plants, the swing set with its yellow swing seats, pop out, then the shades of grey of the west facing cinderblock and old wooden fences. Of course last to show is the green of our burmuda grass, with hints of brown silty soil. It feels surrealistic, as details of the objects come into focus as the colours reveal the details.
It feels spiritual, so quiet, like it’s a secret… before anyone else gets up. I get to enjoy the real start of the day, not getting up when an alarm goes off, and are forced into the day according to someone else’s ‘movie’- my imagination goes wild, from an old black and white Twilight episode to a silent ‘talkie’ movie scene, to real life…
Unfortunately the mosquitos are awake now, as I feel their pinches and picks, and starting to lose patience and getting distracted … so it is time to go inside(610am)
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As I go to close my laptop, I see to the East, thru the barren trees of fall, the orange and pastel blended morning yellow at the tops of the mountains around me, the sun making its entrance. The eastern sky showboating the colours of the sunrise previewing its appearance. I see our neighborhood black cat sitting in our yard , by the swingset, vigilantly searching, slinking quietly in ultra slow motion, looking for any movement- of birds, lizards, bugs…anything to play with or chase… or maybe have its breakfast before the sun rises.
Now the yard is looking alive, I’m seeing more of the colours, like the
bright crayon yellow of the swings’ seat, the painted redwood frame, the navy blue slide. I can see the different shades of grey of the cinderblock fence on our west side of the yard just before the first rays of morning sun hit them. In between, in the corner, the faded red Terra Cota of the chimenea , with the faded red clay statue of St Francis, and the stained white fake marble statue of an angel sitting on a stone thinking on either side…all tucked in the corner where the original wooden back fence of this 50 year old house struggles to get thru another year of the intense summer heat followed by the string of extreme monsoon downpours we have just had that tend to end our summer. There’s something to be said, and I can hear the weathering blacks, browns, charcoal greys of the fence tell the history and stories it has of this yard. Most of which I was a part of in some way.
The colours of the day are here, awake and my time out here is up for now, as I am now becoming the mosquitos breakfast and I am going inside to recover, make some white tea with green powdered stevia, flavored with a heaping teaspoon of cocoa powder, to help me absorb and prepare for the next phase of morning- my 2 granddaughters — Rose and Violet getting up way too early…
Whoa…..it is quiet in here as well. Seems like everyone but me is getting to sleep in this morning. I’m so grateful to have had this time… so thankful to be able to be part of, and thoroughly enjoy,
The start of
‘another beautiful day in the neighborhood’
