Light Breaking Over Monadnock

There is this moment. When you know that it’s coming and time seems to slow almost to a stop. Every breath seems too loud in the sudden hush right before the edge creeps over the horizon. Slow like the sleepy head of a child waking up, and blinking their eyes in the sudden light. 

We woke when it was still dark. Creeping past the huddled forms of the others. Walking barefoot in the dew up to the Main House kitchen. Hushed laughter and adrenaline pumping. Tiptoeing past like a secret. 

More awake then one could ever hope to be on a normal morning we listened to music which seemed too noisy to be permitted, when in reality is was quieter then anything we would listen to in the light. 

And then, we are there. Mysterious and more dangerous then it ever could be in sunlight. The giddiness of our seemingly secret escape from the normalcy of our day, is quieted now by the majestic feel of the climb ahead. 

Our eyes used to the dark, the brave walked forwards with no light. Silence. Without words, we seem closer then ever before. Our breathing rushes in and out in and out like the ocean at high tide. 

So slow that it’s impossible to notice at first, the world begins to wake up. One voice, then two and then thousands join the dawn chorus. We see our feet. Then the grey of the sky, as if the world no longer has color. 

And then, then we reach the peak. The peak of our day. The peak of this mountain. The peak of anticipation. 

And there is this moment. All the world seems to be holding it’s breath. The birds quite for just a moment. Everything else seems to fall away. 

There is this moment and it’s not the sun peaking over the misty distance. It’s not the birds singing their hearts out to the new day. It is not the color stealing across the grey landscape and kissing the trees awake. 

It’s the moment just before. With our fingers laced together. Waiting and wondering. It’s the moment when anything is possible. 

• 
• 588 of 911
•