At dawn, the world rises out of darkness, slowly sense-grain by grain, as if from sleep. Life becomes visible once again. ‘When it is dark, it seems to me as if I were dying and I can’t think anymore,” Claude Monet once lamented.”More light!” Goethe begged from his deathbed. Dawn is the wellspring of more light, the origin of our first to last days as we roll in space, over 6.684 billion of us in one global petri dish, shot through with sunlight, in our cells, in our minds, in myriad of metaphors for rebirth, in all the extensions to our senses that we create to enlighten our days and navigate our nights.
– Diane Ackerman, Dawn Light: Dancing with Cranes and Other Ways to Start the Day
Early mornings are still my favourite time. The sky lightens slowly and I get to see that moment each day.
Today is the first morning in a month that I am wearing a sweater. We finally had a good rain last night that broke the heat. It has been HOT here. The heat has made people angry and irritable. It was like I was training in a sauna most days – the air was thick and I sweat like I had never sweat before. The classrooms have made us melt and move and talk slow. The ocean wasn’t even refreshing as the water was warmer than the air around it.
TODAY’S PROMPT:
- Copy a quote or poem on light or heat (see below or above)
- Draw/paint fire or light
- When have you felt the transformative power of fire? When has it been out of control?
Self Portrait
It doesn’t interest me if there is one God
Or many gods.
I want to know if you belong — or feel abandoned;
If you know despair
Or can see it in others.
I want to know
If you are prepared to live in the world
With its harsh need to change you;
If you can look back with firm eyes
Saying “this is where I stand.”
I want to know if you know how to melt
Into that fierce heat of living
Falling toward the center of your longing.
I want to know if you are willing
To live day by day
With the consequence of love
And the bitter unwanted passion
Of your sure defeat.
I have been told
In that fierce embrace
Even the gods
Speak of God.
- David Whyte, Fire in the Earth
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