Was it only yesterday we climbed in a delayed, de-iced plane up through layers of snow-showering clouds, until finally, we broke through into a twilight blue sky, lined at the horizon with the orange fire of the setting sun? We were flying west, and the sunset lasted a long, long time before the sky was such a deep blue we could see those suns we call stars framed in the small window of the plane.
We arrived only a little before midnight at our Sedona home and tumbled wearily into bed.
We awoke to a crystal clear blue sky, and I sat on the living room couch and watched the coming light of the sun light up the red rock mountains across the valley, and then send long golden fingers down the slopes of the nearby mountain I name El Shaddai.
By the time we were ready to go have breakfast with friends, the whole landscape was flooded with brilliant sunlight. "We forgot our sunglasses!" I exclaimed as we drove squinting through the magnificent Sedona scenery.
"Naturally. We've been in Michigan," replied John, and I must admit we smiled a little smugly as we recalled the gray and brown and white landscape we had left behind.
All day long, the sun shone as we visited an ancient Indian rock art site, hiked halfway up a mesa called Sacred Mountain, shopped for groceries, and settled in.
At day's end, I sat on the couch again with a cup of spicy Thai tea, listening to the wind in the pines outside the window, and relishing the light show on the red rocks and the green valley as the sun sank in the West. The light was still glowing on the distant peaks when John walked in and said " They say tonight there is going to be the brightest, biggest full moon of the year." At that moment, I looked out of the window in the living room that faces east, and there, rising majestically from behind Thunder Mountain, was the moon----huge, silverygold, hanging in a sky still tinted with the coral after-glow of the sunset!
By the light of that same silvery moon, we walked with our dog Leo to the hot tub at the nearby clubhouse. We needed no flashlight; the moon shining through the trees wove a magical path of night light. We bathed in hot water and cool moonlight, and savored the silence. We breathed in the fresh air, and go now to bed, filled with the gifts of sun and moon, which have blessed every single day of our lives. But today, we became aware of their glory in a whole new way. And tomorrow, and every day we live on this earth, the sun and moon will be there, shining on us all, whether or not we can see them, or notice they are there, or realize that without them we would have no life at all.
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