161. Cool Summer Mornings

There are certain negative aspects in the US when an electoral cycle ends and new offices are filled. I felt the last four years to be crazy, but the two choices for President were not so great. That, and a Time magazine article focusing on good things gave me purpose in my blog. So I continue to write about things for which I am grateful. Gratitude is what make life worth living, so I continue to share that here.

The chill of this morning at a brisk 12F is a huge contrast to the experiences I felt just a short few weeks ago when summer was rounding the corner into autumn. Then the morning was cool and I would step outside with my coffee and listen to the birds sing. I could watch them in the sunflowers of the garden, flowers which were still blooming in bright yellows. The contrast with this morning’s frigid chill and the seed heads remaining of my sunflowers could not be more stark. Yet still the birds are feeding on the seeds that remain in those sunflower heads.

While part of me is content with this early window into winter, I will miss those cool summer mornings that have a way of separating themselves from the day’s later oppression of heat. There is something that separates the sanctity of a summer morning from the other seasons. Part of it is that it was the sun that woke me. Part of it is the birdsong when doves coo to one another. And part of it is simply the natural cool separate from the rest of the day.

Something about a cool summer morning is just as fresh as was the entire experience of living when I was a child. There are few preconceived notions about how things should be, they are all just beautiful the way the are without comparatives, let alone superlatives. The world is new and beautiful, your mind is clear of sullied thoughts of cold, anguish, or any troubles of the day. Behold, all things are new.

Yes, there is still beauty and newness in the mornings of autumn, winter, and spring, but they often are dark and cold and you have to build a fire or wear a heavy coat. Those mornings require something of you, but the cool of a summer morning asks only that you observe and feel its beauty unsullied by any cares.