The Light

El Greco sky last night as I walked home from work in the dark, the moon shining bright behind the wild clouds. Out of the darkness, one light shone across the field, then a second: two headlights, making a way along the road. I made my way along the edge of the field and through the lawn by feel, in the dark.

A head cold had me up in the night last week, making a midnight trip to the outhouse and looking for a spoonful of honey to soothe my cough. The full moon, almost too brilliant to look at, yet so different from the golden light of day, made my shadow crisp, and I felt like a wood nymph, a fairy, as I frolicked down my stairs, out to the outhouse, to the cold room for the honey, and up the stairs again.

Smoke mushroomed up from the Icy Creek Fire again a few days back; on the dining room tables at the Ranch the sun's window-shaped patterns were sunset-red at two in the afternoon, and when I looked out above Tolo Mountain, the sun itself was a fiery red orb behind billows of smoke.

I didn't want to wait till sunrise to run this morning, so I left in the glow and shadow of early morning moonshine. I walked along the field by feel, knowing the path, recognizing the shadows of the gate, the horses, a branch here and there. Behind me, the horizon was pink above the Ranch; before me, the moon was still shining in all her glory, and the stars were out. The gravel road was grey between the dark trees on either hand, and my feet did not stumble. My nose took the lead, picking out a whiff of smoke on the breeze, the scent of fresh-cut pine as I approached the tree Colter cut out of the road last week. Then there were no more stars. Then the deep, beautiful blue of the night gave way to the uncertain grey of dawn. Then the moon was not a living, pulsing ball of light but a see-through scrap. Then I turned around to run home and the sky was almost white and by the time I got home, the sun was golden on the high rim of Sisi Ridge.

"In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:4,9,14

"The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." II Corinthians 4:4,6