Daybreak. Coffee. The Big Two.

I'm happy to have Slim Randles here again as today's Wednesday's Guest. I thought this was a nice piece that invites us to stop and appreciate our days, especially those early morning hours when the world is waking up. I do love those daybreak times when I go outside and the sun is rising over the treeline in the meadow across the road. This is a picture I took a couple of weeks ago when I could actually see a sunrise before the clouds took over the sky 24/7. Now and then I look at it to remind myself the sun does exist.

If you'd like, you can have a donut to go with your coffee and then enjoy Slim's story. And when you finish here, hop over to The Blood-Red Pencil, where Slim has another guest post.

There’s something so satisfying about getting out of bed when the world is still dark and quiet and resting. Making the coffee gives us time to scratch and think. Well, scratch, anyway. Most of that thinking will start after about the third cup.

But it’s a quiet time. A private time. When the world is dark, and there isn’t yet a hint of pink over the eastern mountains, it’s very good. We can relax. No one is expecting anything from us right now. Our guilt can take some time off, and we can listen to music or work a crossword puzzle or turn on the TV and watch the weather guy discuss millibars and troughs.

Soon enough, we’ll have to be out there living for others: our bosses, our customers, our animals, our fields. But right now no one needs us except the dog, and she does well on kibbles and an occasional drive-by ear rumple.

We can look out the window at the eastern glow and wonder what will happen in the hours until our world turns dark again. People will be born and people will die. People will win honors and people will go to jail. People will create things today that live past them and people will disappear forever. People will write about these things and other people will read about these things.

And then the world will go dark and dormant on us again and we’ll think about what happened in our tiny portion of this huge moving amalgam and hopefully we’ll sleep easily tonight. Then, when we arise tomorrow and head for the coffee pot, we can think about what happened today, and how it has made us slightly different for taking on the next tomorrow.

Come to us, daylight. Bring us the new day. But do it gently, please, and slowly enough for one more cup.
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Slim Randles writes a nationally syndicated column, Home Country, and is the author of a number of books including  Saddle Up: A Cowboy Guide to Writing. That title, and others, are published by  LPD Press.

An Ode to Autumn

My Wednesday Guest is Slim Randles. This time he is here with something more thoughtful than humorous, but, as always, a good read. I really like this piece as this is the way I feel about Autumn. It is my favorite time of year as it seems to beg for contemplation.

Here in East Texas we do have pretty fall colors.

 This is the polished time, the pinnacle of life. This is fall, when everything puts on its best for the world to see, and that makes it special.

The sultry heat of summer has passed, and in its place we have cool mornings when the tiny snap of winter's promise briefly touches our skin. There is a magic quality of light and feel in the air, and those of us who enjoy the outdoors know it's time to go to camp. In our genes, we know it's time to go to camp. It's time to be in the woods with rod and bow and gun and rediscover ourselves.

In town, it's time for the kids to be back in school, giving their mothers time to think about themselves for a while.  The antlers of the deer have now been polished to a bone white at the tips and a rugged brown elsewhere. They are prime, as is their owner. It is fall. It is the polished time. The trees, as the sap shuts down in the leaves, share their gold and reds with us and make commonplace scenes only a few weeks ago into magical tapestries of nature.

It is the time of finding a mate, of fighting for territory, of defining our lives. It is fall. And we know we must polish ourselves a little bit right now in order to fit in. We have to assess ourselves and ask what we can do to make our lives a little shinier, our hopes a little stronger, our promises to others more defined, more definite.

It is the time to let the fresh cool air fill our lungs and let us remember other falls, other campfires, other friends. Younger friends, as we were younger. And as the golden leaves fall in the late autumn breezes, it will be time once again to cherish our mates and seek refuge from the winter wind.

Brought to you by Slim’s outdoors memoirs, Sweetgrass Mornings. Read a free sample at www.slimrandles.com.