Travelogue: a golden greeting

I don't know what hour it was or how many miles he had driven, but I was stirred by a sound and began to focus my blurred eyes.  All I could see were shadows stretching deep into the horizon, stretching farther than I could measure.  It was a world of lines and darker lines. Then it all changed with a sliver of light, a glowing ember that ignited in the east and grew, as if the entire world was a dry, parched forest and the sun a greedy flame. 

This sunrise was not something to merely witness, we were participants and with each breath light and color spread longer and brighter. We were co-creators painting a new day.  Blues faded softer, orange hushed into peach, and together they brought everything to light, illuminating before our humble eyes a golden world. Gold mountain peaks, gold valleys dipping below, gold light in the sky, gold air filling our souls with life.

This was a new land, a fresh day, and it was ours.