when morning gilds the skies...

Sunrise this morning was spectacular.  I'll focus on the sky today, and it's glorious colors, and try not to think about the wind chill temperatures!  Oh spring, it's time you start thinking about coming back to us.  Until then, I'll remember Mary Oliver's beautiful morning exclamation--these sunrises are a prayer heard and answered lavishly every morning.  My hope is that I am never too busy or stressed to forget to look to the skies where every morning the world is created.

Morning Poem

Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange

sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again

and fasten themselves to the high branches —
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands

of summer lilies.
If it is your nature
to be happy
you will swim away along the soft trails

for hours, your imagination
alighting everywhere.
And if your spirit
carries within it

the thorn
that is heavier than lead —
if it’s all you can do
to keep on trudging —

there is still
somewhere deep within you
a beast shouting that the earth
is exactly what it wanted —

each pond with its blazing lilies
is a prayer heard and answered
lavishly,
every morning,

whether or not
you have ever dared to be happy,
whether or not
you have ever dared to pray.

 by Mary Oliver
from Dream Work (1986) 

Today is a good day for a good day!