Awaiting a New Day

Two weeks after my father’s death, I picked my way through the moonless black of predawn along the north end of Schweitzer Marsh. The early hour, made even less visible by dense April fog, weighed on the land and spirit. The mist was heavy, and I had only to blink my eyes to know it was there.

My first encounter with grief and I had chosen to come to the place that had illuminated “the way home” in other difficult times in my life. I really had no expectation for answers that morning, not even a sense of what I was searching for … only an indistinct hope the marsh might provide some direction, a means to cope perhaps, as it had lifted my spirits on occasion with a glimpse of wildlife or conferred the favor of the landscape when least expected.

Slowly, imperceptibly, light was revealing form. A heron appeared above the fog, perched in a pin oak, looking east, waiting for the new day.

Year: 2006
Location: Schweitzer Marsh
Collector’s Edition of 10
Dimensions: 11" x 16"