Rainy Sunrise

August 3, 2015

This morning I woke to a flash of lightning. There was no sound of thunder, so the storm I knew was far distant. I walked through the house, the sun rise in progress, but unlike any other I have seen in my lifetime. The wash of the brightening sky was a changing palette of citrus. First, the hue made me think of oranges; fresh, bright, orange, its unusual beauty made me anxious somehow; the color and feel so unlike anything I’ve seen before, but soon the luminosity shifted toward grapefruit. A pale, watery orangey-pink radiating all around, shimmering through windows and surrounding my house and world. Then the color shifted yet again to lemon. The radiance of that lemon sky made my heart long for something, somehow; some forgotten memory. It is the color the sunset can be sometimes, as it creates a warm sweet golden glow across the world, shadows growing longer as the sun reaches the western horizon. This morning as I watched the glowing show from the back porch I could see and hear a light, shimmering rain falling to the ground; the sound almost like the sound on the beach when light waves lap the shores and filter through tiny seas shells – sweet shifting  hush, quiet, soft and soothing. Now the whole sky has shifted back to dark as if it were predawn once again, and I can hear the distant thunder, hear the clatter of rain on the roof, the gutters, splashing on already drenched bushes, trees, bricks, concrete; the sun risen above the dark oppressive cloud cover now, and it is truly the start of another rainy day here in Florida – our 21^st day straight with heavy, constant rain, and extremely high humidity. Summer in Florida is a little like New York winters; there the cold and gray keep people inside to hibernate and dream of sunny warmer days. Here I find myself dreaming of sunshine and cooler, drier days. That just goes to show that where we are is not always where we are happiest.