Friday, September 3, 2010

Qualities of light

While running on Thursday morning, I noticed how like a switch the landscape suddenly looked different. I think it was a combination of factors: clear air (not the hazy humidity we deal with for most of July and August), a lower sun angle at that hour, and the corn and soybeans taking on a yellowish tinge as they head toward harvest season.

The word I would use is “vibrant.” Everything just seemed so much more vibrant than it has in the past couple of months, those heavy-air months in which I’ve been taking early morning training runs.

And people wonder why I don’t like summer? And why I anxiously await the return of fall and winter? And why I would seek a place to live along Minnesota’s North Shore where the grand Lake Superior tends to keep the haze and heat at bay?

Vibrant.