Reflected sunlight

Karl and I walk down the driveway first thing in the morning and last thing at night. From late September through early March, these walks are in the dark…in the woods.

This week our walks have been by moonlight. This morning, a warm, rainy front is moving in with blustery winds ahead of it. The temperature was a warm feeling 46F and the wind through the pines felt dry and fresh.

It struck me this morning that I have never felt fear walking in the woods, in the dark. I’ve walked out to the eastern edge to look at the mountains in the night and down the driveway often. I am familiar with all of the creepy fairy tales, but for whatever reason they did not leave me with any fear.

These words of Brennan Manning are often near me and even more so this morning.

Let go in reckless confidence all that shackles you to yesterday, imprisons you in your own small self today and frightens you with the uncertainty of tomorrow.

I find it easy to walk in the dark, in the woods, in reckless confidence. I live much of my life with a spirit of reckless confidence and I’m grateful for that. As I thought about that, there was that flash of insight about at least part of my life where I have allowed fear to imprison me.

Moonlight is reflected sunlight. To photograph the moon, you need to understand that and set the camera accordingly, counterintuitve to typical nighttime settings.

To negotiate life’s scary parts, to go forward with reckless confidence – counterintuitive to past experience and failures – maybe my focus should be set on reflected Son Light.

Photos taken 11/6/2009 shortly after 6:00 a.m.