The Birth of a New Day

It's early yet.  Still dark outside and quiet. This is my favorite time of day.  I've stepped out into my sun room to enjoy my coffee while I wait for the sun to rise. The trees are starting to bud leaves so it's very dark in room.  The room consists of two areas really, a small dining area on one end near the sliding glass doors that lead out to the patio and the sitting area that I walk to.  I settle on the dark brown wicker couch with the red cushions.  On either side of it sits an end table and then to the side of each of those is a brown wicker chair again with red cushions.  A wicker coffee table chest in the middle that rests on a black and white rug.  I love this room.  Across from the couch is a small electric fireplace with a TV on top of it and book cases on each side of it.  There's a large oil painting on that brick wall with red poppies on it.  Although Gary comes out here from time to time to sit with me in the evenings or to have dinner with me, it's obvious this is a woman's room, my room.  My sanctuary, my haven.   

I don't need the light to guide me, I've been coming here to sit each morning for almost eight years.  I sit on my dark brown wicker couch with the red cushions with both hands wrapped around my steamy mug of coffee allowing the heat to seep into my hands, sometimes that helps to ease the pain in my knuckles, and pull my legs up beside me covering them with my bath robe.  I don't turn on the lamp that sits on the end table to my left because I'm hoping the owl will come to visit this morning.  He hasn't been in over a week.  I miss him.  He's a fairly large owl so I'm assuming he's a barn owl.  Before we lived here I don't remember ever seeing one outside of a zoo.  I really don't know that much about most animals but I'm learning as I meet new breeds while I watch from my quiet little corner. 

I drink my coffee and watch as little by little I see the darkness lift and I know the dawn will come.  The silence is broken by slight sounds at first, minor sounds of insects and then an occasional chirp of a bird.  My backyard faces the west so I know I will not get the full glory of the sunrise but I still see the sky change as the darkness continues to lift and the sky changes color.  For just a few short minutes it is has a soft glow like a baby when first waken in the morning with that first sleepy smile.  There will be sun today, the sky morphs from that beautiful sleepy orange glow to blue and the birds songs become plentiful. The squirrels have come out of their hiding places and are playing tag in a nearby tree.  The owl did not come again today but my yard is alive with life and I watched it's birth.  It is like watching the tuning and then the beginning of the symphony. You don't realize you are holding your breath until you exhale.

 There are 4 red birds in my yard picking at the ground.  It is said that when you see a red bird it is an angel visiting.  So much family gone, so many angels to visit.  Yes, this is my favorite time of day, the birth of a new day.