A Day with the Dawn

      No one has spoken. The world is still asleep, not even the sun has crawled out of bed. No sounds of traffic except my bare feet motoring to the coffee pot. Dawn, those magical hours before the world, responsibilities and animals awake is MY time. My parents told stories of me, as a child, wandering around the house during the dawn hours. Four to five hours of sleep is usually all I need (or get) and my day always begins with dawn. Dawn is the fertile damp soil under my fingers, it is that jolt of coffee, the cold shower that tells me I am alive to my heart, to my dreams, to my hopes and some days, to my fears.
      Dawn is the wedding march played with gusto in the sanctuary of the sky to announce the bride’s, the sun’s, arrival. The bride’s blushing sweeps across the sky in hues of reds, purples and orange. The sun’s train sweeps slowly across the sky revealing the new day, the blue sky and clouds. A new day has dawned. I have seen dawns, the wedding march, for 365 days times fifty six years and yet I say each day that a new day has dawned. I welcome each dawn as if none other existed. And when the march has ended and the sun stands firm in the sky I join the vows of love for the earth, her creatures and her children young and old.
      A new day is dawning and its magic inspires and beckons the poet and artist. So what the heck happens when I open the garage door and head off to work? If only I could catch it in a jar like fireflies, when I was a child, and let its magic paint my day. Why do I let go of the hand that greets me each day, pulling me up from my bed and calling me to come and play? Why would I be content to sleep through the day and awake only for the dawn? The dawn announces a new day, hours of life, opportunity, hope and growth yet itself has only a life span of minutes. Hours or minutes-is there really a choice? I who use coupons when I shop, to save a few cents, why would I choose to pay such a price? A new day is dawning. The emphasis is on the day not the dawn. Ah, maybe, at last, it has finally dawned on me.