(This post is dedicated to all my fellow morning walkers. They know.)

Nature electrifies the senses.  It is pre-dawn. Earth is awakened by a throated wood thrush. Her song pierces and polishes the air with the clearest of melodies. Layers of blues, purples and pinks give hint to the promise of daybreak. Get ready to be dazzled. A morning walk has begun.

The first warm sunrays rest lightly on my shoulder.  I quicken my pace, melding into another sphere. Human drama does not exist on this plane. My legs are pumping, advancing me along a path, but I am detached from them. I feel my soul, afloat, held by an open hand. And a groundswell of gratitude renders me weightless.

Unaccompanied, yet not alone, this is what I hear:

 . . . And Lo, I am with you always.

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you:

and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

(Matthew 28:20)