Framing the Day
I took this photo a couple of years ago not long after we moved the clocks ahead. It was nearly 7am and you couldn’t help but notice the view outside the window.
It literally looked like there was a fire just beyond the ridge at the top of the hill.
That deep orange pushing its way up through the trees felt like I should be smelling smoke and hearing the loud crackling pops of burning pine.
A sky like this early in the morning makes you wonder what kind of weather may soon be on its way. Storms sometimes quickly erase the peace that accompanies this type of morning sky.
I say peace because it is exactly the kind of calm I felt looking out the window that morning. As vibrant and spectacular as the horizon looked, it was quiet. Quiet in the way that attaches itself to an early day just before it fully awakens.
Even now, looking at this photo, it makes me think of something very simple.
“Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me.”
— Henry David Thoreau
The start of the day has no idea how the sun is going to show up. The frame is ready, but how the sun paints itself is never known until it happens.
Sometimes the light arrives gently, spreading a soft glow across the sky. Other mornings it pushes through the clouds with a kind of intensity that catches your attention whether you want it to or not.
But the day itself has no idea what lies ahead.
It simply unfolds.
This time of year can feel a lot like that.
The calendar tells us spring is getting closer. The clocks have moved ahead. Yet the weather outside reminds us to slow down. We are still leaning heavily into winter.
Lots of gray. Cold rain drifting in and out. The sunlight that is supposed to lift our spirits can sometimes feel hard to find.
It is something that can easily seep into our mood. It is the same long line I find myself standing in more often than I would like.
We try to plan our days and weeks. Even our expectations about how things should feel. But the truth is we rarely know what the day will bring until we are already standing in the middle of it.
Sometimes the sky will look unsettled.
Sometimes it may even appear to be on fire.
And sometimes that very same sky delivers a quiet kind of comfort we were not expecting.
That is the part worth remembering.
Even when the season takes its time to change, the light is already returning.
The day will discover how the sun arrives.
Just like we do.
Talk soon…
G