DAWN

Morning came to the land in the way it always has. First the sullen, grey sky brooded like a disheartened worker. It cavorted in great mamma clouds that drooped, tempting the earth to reach up to suckle. Then it shifted from the rejection of the earth and grumbled about the heavens, murmuring that it was a lonely task, this one of beckoning all the earth's inhabitants to rise and make themselves busy.

For a while, it tantrumed about up there, like a child dragging its heaviest toys on a hard wood floor. Then it began to forget about the world. It thought about itself. It dreamed about the fact that it was all alone in its power. Whatever the dawn decreed, the inhabitants of earth would follow. It determined that it was most in control of the earth. It glorified itself as though it were a school administrator, proud and haughty, condescending and above reproach.

When it had filled itself with these, it broke into a smile. The smile stretched on from horizon to horizon. A beaming, brilliant smile that swallowed up the gloom of the night. It was a smile that hummed and danced across the earth. In response, the trees, grasses, flowers and creatures of the globe lifted up their faces, limbs and hearts. They filled the break of day with the chorus of the decades. They harmonized into the very astral home of the dawn.

The dawn knew it had friends on the earth, and it reckoned as to why it might have forsaken them for its own moods. It set about its task of melting tears to vapour, throwing away the past and its vagrant mistakes. It healed the heart of the earth and spoke out to the earth that this is a new day. This is a gift to you. This is your new cup to fill.

The earth and its inhabitants, even the creatures beneath the surface of the smooth topped sea, down below, in the depths where sunbeams dare not go, were able to feel the joy of the dawn.

Listen to the salutation of the dawn. For it is life.

COPYRIGHT DAVE MARTIN - ADVENTURE AGENT