Hilltop Dawn

I'm always looking for those little corners of beauty in life. This morning I was out on a hilltop when it was still dark up in San Luis Obispo. The below poem describes that experience. Like so many others, I am drawn to sunrises and sunsets because there is just something amazing about what God does to the world at that time of day. For me, those are the bookends of creation. Sunsets are like the final perfect scene in a movie that provides meaningful closure to any day. Sunrises represent the promise of a new beginning. Every day is an opportunity to make things right and make a fresh start. Sunrises always remind me of that, and even after all these years they still take my breath away

I would encourage you to look for those moments of beauty and wonder in your own life. They are everywhere around us if only we will look for them. And when we do we always seem to rediscover that they connect with a part of us that seems to make everything make sense ... like we were born for those moments. My hope for you today is that you may know this feeling every day. Happy trails!

Hilltop Dawn
I awake to a pale crescent moon
In the vestiges of dawn
As the final star begins to fade
With morning coming on
The world is bathed in quiet
Hints of frost cling here and there
A pair of deer meander by
Autumn is in the air
I follow the fence around the hill
Past pines and eucalypts
Past cows and fallow fields and vines
Frosty breath drifts from my lips
The songs of countless birds abound
From every field and tree
The sun's first rays slip down the hills
And, at last, envelope me
Then frosty meadows blaze in glory
Their veils of shadow swept away
In that shining moment
When the dawn becomes the day
  By Frank Carpenter