Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Morning Prayer


     The cat wanted out and so I saw the sunrise, the eastern sky uniformly orange as if one heavy stroke of a paint laden brush had been applied.  The foothills of Mt. St. Helena were still stubbed  in  muted shades of shadow.

      I returned to my darkened room and lay back on my bed but soon the memory of the color bright sky drug me up to go out and look again.  The morning was now older, I found only a pale  version of that fiery view I had so quickly  taken in.   The colors of light coming wait for no eye.


      I had not, in fact, seen the sunrise, but only the angle of one fractional moment. I had seen no more than a freeze as if captured by a  camera’s lens or a painter’s interpretive palette. I had taken  only one spectral glimpse of a majestic particulate parade that casts its bouncing rays from ever greater height as surely as one’s breath travels to and from the lungs, which breath is sometimes also, sadly, as summarily hailed.  Ah, yes, a new day, sunrise, life….

     I’m reading a memoir that Ivan Doig wrote, This House of Sky.   Speaking of one of his professors he says, “…I was given encouragement and I answered with effort.”    

     Let me answer with my efforts the primal encouragements so readily available with wakening.

4 comments:

Martha said...

Your words paint a beautiful picture when I read them...

Neal said...

Wonderful words Jeanette. They create a wonderful image!!!

Unknown said...

Your writing reminded me of how much we take for granted and I pray I hold onto that thought for more than a fleeting! Your writings are beautiful. Diane (thehiddenpantry)

Unknown said...

Love that you have a covered cast iron vessel to restore. When you have done so here is my daughter-in-law's favorite potato dish roasted in cast iron. SALT ROASTED POTATOES

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Cover the bottom of a seasoned cast iron vessel with a generous sprinkle of coarse salt. Wash any number of potatoes you need to roast leaving the skins on them. Arrange the damp potatoes on the bed of salt. Drizzle with olive oil. (I probably use 4 tablespoons for 6-8 large potatoes. maybe 2 teaspoons for one. Sprinkle again generously with coarse salt then with ground black pepper. Cover with the lid and roast 1 hour. Just remove the vessel from the oven and leave it sitting on the stove or on a trivet. It will stay hot until the rest of the dinner is ready. Enjoy.