Things Seen and Unseen

I almost did not get up to walk this morning. I did not get to bed until after midnight (4 hours after my usual bedtime) and I laid in bed and read until after one. The late bedtime was preceded by an overindulgence of onion rings, Twix bars, chocolate chip cookies and a very exciting SEC National Championship game where the team I was moderately pulling for lost in overtime. Part of me is happy that Alabama won because my nephew-in-law is happy and I just love him, and partly because I had deep concern for the psyche of Alabama's kicker if they lost. So, it's all good.

I thought about lying in bed instead of getting up. A couple days ago, however, I decided that when I get home I will post an album of "Twenty Sunrises Over Sanibel" on FB. No one would care if I substituted a picture from yesterday for today. Truly, no one would even know. Frankly, I doubt anyone's life would be unalterably impacted if I did not post an album at all. But, for whatever reasons, I got out of bed, dressed, went into the living room of the condo, opened the shade, and saw a sky obliterated by fog and clouds. For a brief moment, I considered going back to bed or flopping on the sofa. I am so glad I did not.

Every morning as I walk across the wooden walkway to the beach I hear rustlings on either side among the sea grapes and ferns. Some mornings in the dimness before daylight, I will see little brown creatures scurrying about. I could never see them well enough to know what exactly they were. I thought, perhaps, they were gophers. This morning, as I walked across the condo common area, I saw at least a dozen little brown bunnies hopping in and munching on the grass. Until this morning they had been mainly unseen, but today, I saw them well. They are much more adorable than the gophers I was imagining.

The lighthouse, which is my daily destination on my walks, was completely invisible, as were all the condos and houses. I knew they were there, but I could not see them. I could hear a crab boat chugging along, but I could not see it. I said a prayer for the safety of the people on that boat because it seems that being out on the water with such low visibility would be quite dangerous. There was no first light turning the sky shades of blue and pink and gold. Everything was gray, but everything was beautiful.

The dolphins were out. I love the dolphins. I wondered aloud to Doree just yesterday as to where the dolphins were this year. There were three of them playing in the mist as I walked by. I stopped to watch, but could not get a picture.  It was a beautiful walk. Had I not made it, I would never have known what I missed, but on some level, beyond my awareness, my day would have been diminished had I chosen not to go.

Somewhere, behind the clouds and fog, the sun has risen. I cannot see it, but I know it to be true.