Dawn

Watching the daybreak and sunrise. The pale rose and purple sky changing softly to daffodil yellow and white, sunbeams pouring through the passes between the peaks and over the mountains, making their edges; burn the silver firs in the middle ground catching the glow in their spiry tops, and our camp grove fills and thrills with the glorious light. Everything awakening and joyful; the birds begin to stir and innumerable insect people. Deer quietly withdraw into leafy hiding-places in the chaparral; dew vanishes, flowers spread their petals, every pulse beats high, every life cell rejoices, the very rocks seem to thrill with life. The whole landscape glows like a human face in a glory of enthusiasm, and the blue sky, pale around the horizon, bends peacefully down over all like one vast flower.

~*~*~*~*~*~John Muir~*~*~*~*~*~