Daybreak...

Early Sunshine

“I'm so glad my window looks east into the sunrising...It's so splendid to see the morning coming up over these long hills and glowing through those sharp fir tops. It's new every morning, and I feel as if I washed my very soul in that bath of earliest sunshine.” L. M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables)

I was up early enough to hear the owls hooting their way home. Now the sky is pink, causing the light around me to glow golden. What a beautiful morning. I love sunrise.

Early morning brings a cascade of songs— beginning with the peepers, crickets, and owls. Crows are the first of the day-birds to burst forth, beginning their daily rounds, growling the lyrics back and forth. By the time the sky is light, the mockingbirds, wrens, jays and sparrows bring up a chorus behind the steady pulse of crickets. It's quite a symphony.

I don't know whether you wake up early as I do, but every morning is a treat for the senses. Before the jarring sounds of cars and leaf blowers and lawn mowers, there is a beautiful, natural-world choir even here in the city. I listened to an interview on NPR last week about sound pollution, and what the noise level is doing to our brains and hearts—nothing good, I can tell you. The woman being interviewed, whose research measures the results of noise on human health, forces her children to wear ear protection any time they're outside. One of the most damaging of recent developments is the ear-bud that so many people use to listen to music on their iPods. 

It's a good idea to spend some time every day listening to the sounds designed for optimal health—like owls hooting their way home, or crows chattering the day awake, as we “wash our very souls in that bath of earliest sunshine.”

                                                     In the Spirit,

                                                           Jane