The sun rose above a cold and hushed forest this morning, making the high clouds blush with anticipation. To the east, the trees’ backdrop was all crimson and fire, while to the west the underbelly of the sky was lit in rosy pastels. A gull floated high above the bluff shaded as pink as a flamingo. The browsing doe’s brown winter coat was tinged a dusky magenta.
I have always enjoyed the effects of things being lit up from below. This is nowhere more observable than around a campfire on a very dark night. As people lean forward to warm their hands, their faces take on a softened shimmer, mesmerized by the flick and spark of the burning wood. We are used to turning our faces toward the sun to momentarily appreciate its balm and warmth, but a campfire’s burning coals smooth out wrinkles of anxiety, bathing the heart in calming thought like
a reflection within a reflection.
Light from above leaves sharp shadows. Light from below melds with shadow to soften the outlines. Life is like that sometimes. An unanticipated threat looms suddenly, glaringly lit by a fearful realization: an unexpected bill we cannot pay, a pink slip at work, an unwelcome, gut-wrenching diagnosis. The light is coldly enlightening-there is trouble afoot, and the shadows are long and dark.
Making a nighttime fire in the fireplace or the backyard fire pit brings a different perspective. The light softly cracks the darkness, the flames invite us to quell our panic, to murmur with the nattering coals into the warm light’s crevices – not to forget our troubles, but to see them in a light less stark. Illumined, yes. But without the anxious shadows, warming our souls in the fire’s rhythms of flare and ember. I’ve never seen a more beautiful face than one watching a campfire, meditatively strengthening with faith and resolve to face the shadows and overcome them.
________
Thanks for the time you take to read my wandering mind. After seeing today’s magnificent sunrise, I decided to try a writing exercise on why I adore the softening effects of under-lighting. It isn’t easy to describe!
J.A.P.Walton, Ph.D.
Feel free to comment here or send an email: jpraywalton.writing@gmail.com
This Side of the River 
God bless your wandering mind! (Your perspective always helps me to stop & think… ) [lol] Not to mention how comforting it is for those of us who wander = : ) to know we’re not alone out here!
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Ekphrasis. God painted a sunrise, you took a picture. Your picture led to your prose. Your prose painted pictures to inspire my poem. Thank you, Julie.
Fire Understory
for Julie
Sunrise peeks through cold and hush
making high clouds blush,
gulls pink above our bluff,
and doe’s brown coat magenta dusk.
Look to the sun and feel the balm;
look at the fire and feel life calm.
Come murmur with the nattering coals
as anxious shadows flee our souls.
Nellie deVries
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