The tiny fella inched his way across the parking lot, so close in color to the asphalt, I almost missed him. His eyes, wide, were fixed on something in the distance I couldn't see.

With each year, the colors of fall catch and humble me more; beauty is everywhere fringing convenience store parking lots and wide open fields.

One Morning

Some mornings when I wander down to the beach, the beauty is staggering. Today the sky's deep morning blues were stitched with coal grey clouds. The blues turned to lavender and stretches of pink, all of it a preamble to the sun which began to rise over the quiet waters.

The usual suspects were all there: the two gulls perched together on one rock. The egrets that dipped their beaks into the low waters and craggy rocks in search of breakfast, each movement elegant. The five ducks that paddled everywhere together.

The sky changed again and the morning woke.