Monday, April 6, 2015

A Morning Drive

April 6, 2015

First light for me is always the best time for driving. I didn't quite make it this morning, but it was close enough, with the sun rising in a clear blue sky on the warmest day we've seen in months. I was on my way to Erie to spend some time with my old friend Rick, who was scheduled for open heart surgery. Driving the expressways in the morning always takes me back more than 40 years, to our Chicago days, when after driving all night from Western NY, we would pull into the city just as daylight spread its early morning skyscraper shadows across the metro area. On one of these mornings, Crystal Gayle was on the radio singing "Don't You Make My Brown Eyes Blue." To this day, I can't make a morning expressway run without that song ringing in my ears.

After a long, hard winter, the snow is finally giving way to the warmth and the rain. It won't be long before it is but a memory, and people will be griping about the heat, the rain, or all the yard work that needs to be done. For my part, I am grateful for the changing of the seasons. Sure, it'll be messy and muddy for about a month, but that is a small price to pay for the promise of summer. Tonight, the air had a new aroma; a freshness born of last fall's detritus being set free on the breeze from its snowy imprisonment. In just a few weeks, the buds will begin popping out on the trees, with their staggering variety of greens. I never cease to be amazed at how many shades of green early spring offers, from the deep hues of the conifers to the yellow-tinted poplars and willows. By the middle of May, they will all have settled into an almost uniform green that signals the fullness of the summer to come. That there should be so many gradations of a single color is simply astounding. To the cynic or skeptic, perhaps it is to be taken in stride. As a Christian, it is one more piece of evidence of the magnificence of the mind and imagination of God. Crystal Gayle singing in my mind is just an added bonus.

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