A Still More Glorious Dawn

“A still more glorious dawn awaits
Not a sunrise, but a galaxy-rise
A morning filled with 400 billion suns
The rising of the milky way."
- Carl Sagan

Monday was my first day back to work in the new year. I was driving into town when I saw the pink starting in the sky. I hoped the skies would still be pink over the Arboretum when I got there to spend 15 minutes with my camera - my first Arboretum visit of the new year! - before my official work year began.

I made haste, as they say. Which means that I fumed and fussed as I sat in traffic on Park Avenue, watching the sky show, wanting to be part of it. Stop and go, stop and go. As city standards go, it is no traffic at all. You real city drivers would mock us. But for around here, the time of the bulk of the University's employees arriving - and leaving - serves as "rush hour" in this town.

I was very fortunate. The pink in the sky grew increasingly stronger for just the first few minutes after I got there. Indeed, this one was about the third photo I took. I leapt out of my car and tucked my keys (now on a bright red key chain so I don't forget them and lock myself out of the car again) in my pocket. And then I fairly RAN toward the light.

It looked as though the Battle of Evermore was taking place right in front of me, with the pinks and blues warring over my head. Or maybe like that scene near the end of Cinderella with the fairy godmothers fighting over the color of the party dress: now PINK! now BLUE!

The lily pond was frozen over. Saffron tones in the sky reflected on its surface, making it bright and shiny as gold foil. The show carried on as I photographed the Arboretum walkway, the northeast end of campus (shown in this shot), the children's garden, and the solar clock against those clouds. It was a light and sky show that was not to be missed. I felt like the luckiest girl in town. What a great way to begin my work year!

And as I strolled around, snapping away on the camera like an absolute fiend, under conditions I could only identify as photographically delicious, there was one phrase that kept repeating in my head. And it was words spoken by Carl Sagan: "A still more glorious dawn awaits . . . " (The full quote is above.) But you know, confidentially, I am not sure I can imagine a dawn any better than this. So maybe . . . that glorious dawn . . . is here!

The warring pink and blue clouds above my head reminded me of the Battle of Evermore. So that is my song for the day. I'm including two versions, which are both full of awesome: the first by Led Zeppelin (set to a cool video featuring clips from the Lord of the Rings movies), and the second by Heart, who does some pretty fantastic covers of Led Zep tunes.

As a bonus, I'm throwing in a link I've included before (but it seems so appropriate here, so here it is again) to a pretty cool video/song compilation of Carl Sagan quotes, also featuring Stephen Hawking. It's called A Glorious Dawn. Enjoy!