Lovers of Light: Heart of the Sunrise

Sunday night was quite chilly - in the mid-twenties F (about -4 C) - and it brought our first hard frost of the season. I awoke and my first thought was to remember that on this day, I was NOT working at home (as I often do on Mondays), and so I would need to get up and get ready for work and get on the road. My second thought was that the mist must be rising somewhere - and so if I chose my route to work strategically, I might briefly go in search of it.

I stopped at a little pond that is a favorite of mine, just as the sun started to break through the trees. The water was still as glass, and the foliage colors were still good. I've been surprised this year how long the colors have been hanging on. A bonus for us "leaf-peepers," who chase down the foliage colors with a devotion (some might say obsession) not unlike that of those folks in the midwest that you read about who chase tornadoes. OK, so I admit that chasing foliage is a lot less dangerous than chasing twisters. And foliage - when you catch it, or perhaps when it catches you - won't destroy your house and property lickety-split, but you catch my drift.

The mist was rising, and it moved like a living spirit across the water. And the sun was warming the colors before my very eyes, turning the trees from darkness to brown to orange to gold to pure light. That's one of the things I enjoy most about the fall foliage colors - how different even the very same scene can look under different light conditions. And light through foliage looks different; the light becomes infused with the colors it touches.

The lines in the sky above my head were reflected on the glassy surface. A farmer's silo was reflected there, too. The mist began as a shade of silver-gray but then it caught the sunrise and foliage colors and turned pinkish-orange.

Everything shining, everything golden. And then, the light had one last special thing in mind on this morning. And it was indeed the crowning glory. I took a few last photos, started to turn to go. And then I turned around and saw it: the morning sun reflecting on the water . . . in the shape of a heart.

The soundtrack: Yes, Heart of the Sunrise.