...the razzle dazzle...

 Last night bled into this morning as the little one, "weekended" right out of his daily schedule, whimpered his way through sleeplessness.  He dozed, fitfully, by my side, waking frequently for the comfort of nursing and the distraction of tangling up in my hair.  I, for my part, played at contortionist, twisting in pretzels round him as he snuggled first this way, then that.   Somewhere around 2a.m., we finally abandoned ship (or...bed) and made the best of it.  Armed with a hot reheat of the good stuff, and a stack of books, we hit the reset button and cozied up in the recliner.  Soon enough, the cat boarded lapside as well, and we made it through the dark hours.  Round about 4:30a.m., both beasties finally fell asleep in my arms and I dropped them off cribside and crawled back into bed...

...just in time for the alarm go to off.
Raowr!
Or, more accurately...whimper!

Another scalding round of leftover coffee and I was ready to grumble my way through our morning routine. (And did a bang up job, I might add! Encore, anyone?)  Finally, with breakfast served and cleared, appetites sated and arguments silenced, I took "my five"...while big bro entertained little bro.

A quick check in on interwebs for the daily news and noise.
A system-scan of email...delete button activated.
A systematic syncing of calendars...both virtual and tangible.
Then...pause...arms crossed, head down...reboot in progress...

...and as I stretched back up, I caught sight of the glow spreading across the floor from our picture window, and swiveled to take in the burning skies on the horizon.  Sunrise, in the winter months here, is an absolute blaze of glory.  Full drama.  Vivid hues paint the skyline in tongues of fire or hyper-colored rainbow-sherbet layers.  The woods at the front of our property are cast in stark contrast...black boughs against heady intensity of all that sudden color. 

They simmer slowly at the start...just a few sparks of orange cresting in the distance.  Then suddenly, they ignite...dazzling the eye. The midwinter cold is momentarily burned away and the whole world seems to radiate golden heat.  But a few moments of life, joyous and radiant and affirming...and then the flames fade into pastels...muddling into the grey of yet another cold winter's morning.

Oh, but those moments...those precious seconds that tick-tock-tick as the phoenix rises...

Those moments as the barren branches suddenly catch fire and burst into flower once more...

Sunrise, 11. January. 2021

Those moments when I drink in the sunrise...charging up like one solar-powered...and feel (perhaps naively, perhaps obstinately) that I can make it through yet another day on mere fumes.

~Leanna