The Sun Is But a Morning Star

"Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star." - Henry David Thoreau.

The Arboretum is hosting another photo contest, this one for winter images taken in December, January, or February. I have a lot of snow pictures from this winter (which has been quite WINTRY, to be honest), but the sad news is that most of them are NOT of the Arboretum.

In fact, I'd only been there a few times this year. The Arboretum is at the northeast end of campus and the timing of my between-bus photo jaunts tends to limit me to mid-campus locales. It's easier to get there when I drive, and since we're between winter weather events, I have my wheels!

So this past week, I've been to the Arboretum twice, stalking snow images. On this morning, the sun was just a shadowy yellow object in the sky, and I had a shot in mind: the one above, featuring the Sundial pointing to the morning sun in the sky, its best and brightest morning star.

As I am typing this, I have just submitted my entry to the photo contest. In the end, I decided that the one image I took the day before this - the Witness Tree framed through Childhood's Gate - might be more unique and colorful and cheerful; so that's the one I sent. Though I like this one too, of course, but it's a bit more moody. . . .

Who knows how the contest will turn out (there are no cash prizes, just the glory of winning), but it's exciting to enter anyway, isn't it? And last year, I got lucky and won their spring photo contest with my image of the tulip display, which also features this very same Sundial. :-)

Here's a soundtrack song for this image of the Sundial pointing to the sun, its morning star: Mary Chapin Carpenter, with Bright Morning Star. One of the verses of this song appears below.

Sometimes this life is no more than a moment
And sometimes this light is lost unto the dark
But courage hears the sound of dawn approaching
And each our own, bright morning star