Writing under the influence of Moonlight & Dawn

I get up every morning around dawn. Most of these shots were taken in the last week during that time frame. We received another 5 inches of snow last weekend. Although things are melting up here, it is a slow process. At times, especially if the sun comes out, it is blinding to be outside.

I like dawn and sunset because everything is muted-yet the contrast of such moments-especially when the sun is breaking through reminds me of just how little light it sometimes takes to change the world.

Illumination changes everything.

I know many people define illumination in vastly different terms.

Some through fashion.

Some through song.

Many through love.

Others through prose.

I mostly find illumination through nature. I believe that often in creation is where one finds that God shines brightest.

Not much of a doctrine, I know. But it is a starting point toward whatever may come next.

I write because there are images I would like to share.


There are pictures I can not take.

At least not with the camera I have. But let me offer that the vision of a full moon shining over the eastern Selkirk Crest, with those rugged peaks, snow capped and bright, standing tall against the stars-represents an "Oh My God", let's just freeze this image forever, memory.

I am thankful I've been treated to such a moment more than a few times lately. That sight, all that whiteness lighting up the dark, sometimes frosted by small fragile wisps of fog and snowmist following the form of the lowlands, is beautiful in the softest way. The movement of the silent fog rising just about the ground, creating layers of sparkling ice, is the glitter of angels. The way headlights become options under so much light and how even the ski resort lights, tracing the runs so many miles away, seem to accent wonder.

In the chill, I embrace each glimpse as representations of God's sense of place. A creator's imagination set loose, free to dance against the canvas of open meadows and fragment the Bull Pines while leaving no mark or permanence.

I swear I am not writing this on Ecstasy but isn't it fitting that even in the midst of that dark winter stillness, creation could make a tired traveler feel so alive?