First Light

Sat., June 24, 2000

It takes about an hour for the sun to scale the mountains east of Coeur d’Alene, creating a eerie pre-dawn world in Kootenai County just before our closest star spills its warm light onto lakes and farms dotting our land.

Calm and cool, the landscape is a surreal blue and takes on the color of silence reflected from the atmosphere. In places, the silence is broken by the sounds of streams fed by mountains falling through a labyrinth of courses created patiently over time. In other places, it’s the sounds of animals gathering an early meal or finding sanctuary under cover for a day of sleep.

People share this time with nature by watering acres of farmland, creating a sea of specular highlights with beads of moisture.

All too soon the magic of this time is broken, with the modern world overwhelming the silence with its hurried pace until it runs its course. Then, once again, the magic returns.

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