Sunrise is around 8 am now. We were both awake early and decided, on a whim, to go to the beach when it was still pitch dark. Dressed in heavy coats, gloves, and toques, we stopped by Starbucks at 6:30 for two breakfast sandwiches, coffee for him and tea for me. We sat in the darkness of the car and ate breakfast while watching two beacon lights across the water blink alternately red and green. A tugboat chugged by, its bright headlight shining a path across the inky water.
On this overcast morning sunrise was almost imperceptible, a mere gradual lightening of the sky in the east. Breakfast finished we went for a short walk. Gulls, and Bufflehead ducks were just awakening and beginning their mornings. Sparrows flitted from their nests across the path, still almost invisible in the half-light.
From a distance we heard the faint honking of Canada geese. Then, there they were, high overhead, long trails of dark shapes swirling and shifting in loose formation, now over water, now over land.
How beautiful they were, greeting the morning together with us, wild geese against a grey December sky.
And so the day began. All through the tidying and vacuuming, the folding of laundry and washing of dishes, the peace of that early morning has stayed in my mind, a few moments of delicious beauty in God's marvelous world.
