My Day Started Out in Colors

Frank Sinatra used to say his favorite color was 5 o’clock dawn blue and you’d only know it by staying up all night to see it. Today, I might not have gotten up at 5 am to see this color, but 7 am before fall daylight savings kicks in is pretty darn close.

(Not the same sunset/sunrise but one I was able to capture a touch)

The sky was... purple? Periwinkle? I don’t know if I know the name of the color I saw other than 7 am fall dawn blue/purple. Do we have to name everything we see? And if we name it one thing, will the color change with our opinions?

All I know was that it was cold taking the dog out, I hadn’t been super happy he wanted out so early, but what can you do. I tugged on my shoes, wrapped a coat around me and headed out into the dark, no hint of sunlight through the front door. Couldn't he wait, like half and hour? No, of course not, he's basically had to hold his pee all night sleeping and it's only natural to want out when one wakes up.

And then I saw the sky.

It was a warm purple, blue, pink, light blue, sky color. There wasn’t a drop of clouds before me, a single line of wispy things behind me, they were starting to lighten from that ashy brown to light pale yellow and pink of morning sunrises. The color wasn't deep like night, nor was it lightened by day's harsh glare. It was somewhere between. 

And there were still stars out.

It took me a moment to see they actually were stars and not satellites after they didn't move in set motion. I picked out Orion quickly (thank you 7th grade science project) and watched as the other lights twinkled as the last remaining stars in the coming morning. I searched the sky for more, but those handful were the only ones bright enough to give off starlight. 

For a moment, I was taken by awe at the sky, changing my mood from grumpy to "Wow, look what I got to see?" And then sadness as I realized I hadn’t seen the stars in a while, I could think of many excuses, it’s been cold at night, been tired, busy doing other things. But right then I missed seeing the stars. I grew up in Northern Michigan, so the stars had been a part of me for as long as I could remember. But when I moved to a city with light pollution, it was almost easy to forget they were there, always, even when you couldn't see them.

I almost missed this explosion of color taking place around me because I hadn’t stopped to notice it. I was too busy caught up in everything else to stop and go “our world is pretty neat, we have water that falls from the sky, flowers that sprout themselves just because, trees that give us fruit, and colors. All the colors we can see, for free.”

I’m happy my dog needed out this morning before the sun came up. I got to see the world in these colors before daylight burned them all away.