"All things are divinized in morning light! . . . Alpenglow is the most impressive of all the terrestrial manifestations of God and suggests the spiritual Love-light in which the flesh-walls of earthy tabernacles are dissolved and everything puts on immortality!"
The Contemplative John Muir
Yesterday morning, on the Summer Solstice, I arose at 5:30 A.M. to catch the glorious ruddy alpenglow light radiating on the peaks spread out across the lake from my backcountry campsite. Perhaps more than any other phenomenon, alpenglow embodies for me the presence of the humble, self-emptying God. From the perspective of we as the observer, morning alpenglow always hits the high peaks before it reaches us. Obviously, if we traveled further east, we could reach the rising sun. However, with the blissful, self-emptying God, we could travel endlessly across the horizon of Being, yet never encounter the Cosmic Sun - the Source! And yet - and here is the mystery - all of reality nevertheless LIGHTS UP in the Beloved's Love! We too are meant to embody this Love, shining the light of admiration, adoration and compliments on those around us, yet disappearing from the need for any recognition or compliment in return! Like God, we enjoy simply being "the Trickster," emptying ourselves out in bliss at the beauty of life spread out all around us, yet enabling everything to radiate its innate loveliness!
Photo:
Alpenglow as seen from my backpacker's campsite on Rainbow Lake, with a
Limber Pine growing in a crack in the rock in the foreground; Mount
Zirkel Wilderness, CO, June 21, 2015
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