Happenstance

Happenstance? Coincidence? Fluke? Maybe a little.  It was mostly cloudy all afternoon and totally clouded over when we left to go to my parents house for dinner. Even though it looked drab and dreary outside, I thought to myself before we left "I better bring along the camera, just in case… there might be a gap in the clouds."

Well, I sure am glad I did. As we continued to drive further west, the clouds began to form a distinct shelf very low on the horizon – and I’ve seen that enough times to know what it means.  I kept saying to Mary, "As soon as that old sun makes up its mind to drop below the cloud shelf,  the underside of those low clouds are gonna be blasted with glorious golden-red winter light… and the purple stuff. We gotta make a detour. Quick!"  Sure enough, it started to happen and I knew exactly which back roads would take us to a good spot.  It’s a good thing too, because the light only lasted about two – maybe two and a half minutes.  And then it was gone. Basking in the glow of knowing that I had gotten some great shots,  I kept gloating to myself quietly, over and over:  "Chance favors the prepared mind…Chance favors the prepared mind…" Like roots of a tree digging deeper and deeper into the earth, the entire chain of events reinforced in my mind what I already knew to be the number one rule – Always, always, always carry a camera.