My morning walk is split in two: we walk to the Sound at 5:15; it's already bright on this end of the island. When we reach the Queen Anne's Lace and the Red Sorrel at the top of the stairs we must turn around and go home. The dogs, unfed, are hungry and don't mind this strange departure from ritual. 

It's not until after 9:00 am that we're able to return for our walk, well after the freshness of dawn. The solitary music of the sea and the gulls and the geese waking up has passed. The sacred time, (a new day just beginning), we have missed – being immersed in all that atmosphere of possibility – of being acutely aware, quietly reflective and undisturbed, involved with day before most of everyone else is moving. We accept this, today, and hope for an outing at dawn tomorrow.

All photos and text copyright Kelly DuMar 2017