Autumn Morning

Up early this morning, just after 4:30. Sat around enjoying the silence, the cool air, and watching the sun come up. It was beautiful, almost the color of pumpkins. Later, as I drove to the Lovely Shirley's, I turned off the radio, shut off the cell phone, rolled the window down and opened the sun-roof, and drove slow as I could. It was early enough that there was no other traffic. Wispy patches of fog had settled on the hills and in the valleys, turned burning gold by the morning sun. I pulled over into the loose gravel on the side of the road watched as a doe and her fawn patiently crossed an old, unused apple orchard and disappeared into the mist. A little further a flock of wild turkeys picked among the stones of a pasture. If they were aware of me, they gave no indication. And with that -- with the sunrise, the fog, the wildlife, the cool Autumn air, and the quietude -- I experienced an awakening, brief moment of Zen-like bliss; the world was absolutely perfect.