Morning Muse

Dawn: Jewel in the crown of the day. Both of the transition periods are gorgeous but dusk is so frenetic, its promise relief. Dawn is peaceful, the start of something new.

I've said before that one of the unexpected bonuses of being a truck driver is that you get to see many a sunrise. That still holds true as a local driver, even at midsummer. I've had to start early every day this week and have seen as many dawns. Thursday's was my muse:

The temps were in the seventies, the humidity low yet a mist rose from every field, dale and hollow; sometimes homogenous, sometimes stratified in undulating layers. Before the sun actually rose its red orange light reflected off a bank of cloud setting the eastern sky ablaze. As the light grew its reflection reached the blue grey mist in the fields setting a zone of oh, so subtle color alight atop it. I realized that Monet wan't up to this task. With all of Van Gogh's candles on his hat it would still be hopeless. Maybe Turner could have captured its essence?

The light grew until the whole eastern sky was on fire and nothing was subtle any more: complimentary colors were hovering above the fields before my eyes! You probably wouldn't believe it if you saw it in a painting.

Then the sun rose behind that reflecting bank of cloud and the glory deflated. Regardless, the mist was no longer blue grey and orange, now pure silver. The beauty never stops.

The beauty never stops still those moments of rapturous glory are rare. I traversed the selfsame territory at nearly the same time yesterday but everything was different. The humidity more intense with no atmospheric reflectors to enliven things; the world was just gray. I still got a visual treat worth mentioning though:

It was later in the morning, the sun already up. Travelling east on I-64 in Louisville, along the bank of the Ohio both the river and the sky were the same color, one vast expanse bisected by the lines of bridges. The water was luminous, seemingly giving off more light than the sky. I don't remember the sun, just a general haze, yet it must have been shining because a barge and a couple of small boats in the distance set the water around them sparkling.

Keep your eyes open my friends, the beauty never stops.