Waiting for the sun  to come up over the ridge. Waiting for that first kiss of warmth on a cool fall day. The air is crisp and energizing, the sun brilliant even in the shade of the ridge. Today is such a day, I want to remember it. It reminds me of when I was young and a Boy Scout in Germany, sitting in a valley on a cool fall day, just waking up and wandering out of our army issue sleeping bags and army issue pup tents. We sat there in a slight valley shivering a little from sleep and a little from the coolness of the autumn air. Waiting for the sun to come up over the ridge. It was a beautiful sight, one that you allowed yourself a few minutes to take in before returning to building the morning fire. We would wonder if this is what it must have been like in World War II a strange dichotomy of beauty and soldiers; scarred but yet able to detach from the moment of war to enjoy the sun coming over the ridge. But we were just young kids enjoying the lush green in the valley, the variation of the leaves on the various Maple, Oak, Elm and Spruce trees. Working to get a fire going and having fun finding sticks and branches to feed the fire, excited that we would be, like those soldiers, eating K rations, but mostly just waiting for that first kiss of the sun, waiting for the warmth that it would give. Just waiting for the sun to come up over the ridge.