Time Lapse Morning

I lived an entire day in forty minutes.

You might have seen those time lapse sequences where a seed sprouts, a stalk grows, leaves fill out, blossoms open, pedals fall, and the stalk wilts all in the span of eighty seconds.

Such was the way today started.  I pulled out of my driveway just as the faintest hints of swirling pastels were forming on the eastern horizon.  Ten miles into my drive, heavy clouds the color of purple twilight were edging in from the west.

Another ten miles and midnight had descended. The flowers of the ornamental trees that had been coaxed into full blossom by the previous eighty degree day fairly glowed in stark contrast to the pitch black.Quickly the trees were obliterated by rain that didn't fall but blew in horizontal sheets.

As quickly a false midnight had descended, clouds thinned and the western sky sported pink finery. Quickly the remaining clouds raced to the northeast, their sheared edges showing the wear of their hurry.

And then, for the second time in the morning, the eastern sky glowed with the windmilling colors of dawn.