A new day is breaking with the early morning light filtering through the trees. The grass crunches under the footsteps of the intruder into the lair of nature.

I love this time of day, even in the cold, harsh mornings of winter. You fortify your body with coffee, bundle up under layers of rayon, wool and cotton, lace your boots up extra tight and venture out into the morning air. The cold blast of winter air startles the last of the sleepiness from your brain.

Mornings like this clear your mind, clarify your thinking and wipe away the strains of dealing with humankind. Nature sweeps away the problems that prevented sleep. Tension, and the headaches that accompany it, flee and disappear in the frozen woods.

It is a new day. Despite the best efforts of humankind, life goes on and the Earth survives. Mother Nature wins another one.