Early Morning Light

Dear Diary,

Only at certain times of the year does the rising sun strike this glass ball in just this way casting a luminous blue light.  The same is true upstairs where at certain times of year the sun creates rainbows in my hall by reflecting off a beveled mirror.  I enjoy these brief times of beauty.  They make me stop what I am doing and for a few moments watch the lovely effect of the light.

This morning, the blue light made me think of Percy Shelley's verse from Adonais, an elegy he wrote for Keat's funeral:

Heaven's light forever shines, Earth shadows fly;
Life, like a dome of many colored glass,
Stains the white radiance of eternity...

It also made me think of my cousin's son who passed away yesterday morning at the age of 52 of ALS.  His brief time of casting light in this world is over and  my heart aches for his family who can only hold onto the memory now.  He was the ring bearer at my first wedding 47 years ago.  An adorable child who, along with my flower girl, playfully swung on the altar rail when they got bored with the proceedings.  That is the memory that I hold today...