Morning Light

Today the weather is to be hot and steamy but this morning isn’t that at all. The temperature is comfortable and the humidity low. I’m noticing already how much darker it is at 5:30 than it used to be. It’s almost fully dark, at least to my sleepy eyes, though it quickly lightens up. By the time I pull on my shoes and grab Dog’s leash, the dark is already lifting.

The light this morning was especially nice. Dog and I walked along a short trail, winding into a woods that glowed with the golden shades of a summer morning. This was summer at its prettiest, and for a few moments that light and this glow made the season feel like the unending days of my childhood.

Walking in the woods, sometimes, is like a meditation. I never know what thoughts, feelings or memories will be stirred by the sights around me. They bubble up like water from a hidden spring to the surface, rippling out, before being absorbed, once again, into the calming water of a larger lake.

Baby Dog spotted one of the foxes this morning. This shouldn’t have been a surprise, really. Last night the foxes were barking for some time, up above my cabin but not far away. Baby Dog spotted the fox in tall grass before I saw it. I thought she was staring at the spot where she saw a groundhog last week. Baby Dog never forgets where she sees animals and on every walk that nears a site of such an encounter, she pulls on the leash and tries to get back over there in hopes of seeing it again. So when she went to the end of the leash and froze at attention, at first I didn’t pay much attention to her. Then she started to bark. I looked up just as the fox moved, its motion making it visible to me. It disappeared back into the tall grass. It took a full minute for me to calm Baby Dog. I suspect we’re never going to be able to walk quietly past that spot again.