Selfishly, I wish we’d do away with Daylight Saving Time. As an early riser, who heads out for a 2-1/2 mile walk first thing each morning, I prefer walks in the half hour before sunrise. Each spring forward hurtles me back into morning darkness for my walks. I take a light with me that I occasionally use, but I much prefer the natural light from the brightening eastern sky. 

In my neck of the woods, the earliest sunrise comes in June, which has an average sunrise at 5:43am. The skies start to brighten half an hour before that, meaning I can see light in the eastern sky not long after 4am. My sleep schedule tends to follow the sun for a good part of the year so that in the summer, I wake up around 5am and head out for my walk not long after. The latest sunrise comes in January, averaging 7:23am, and meaning first light just before 7am. I’m an early riser and can’t sleep in that late, so I am usually up just before 6am in the winter months, and I head out in darkness.

Every once in a while, however, my dark morning walk coincides with a full moon that hangs high in the southwestern sky, and I find I have a natural nightlight to illuminate the path. Moonlight is a softer light and it creates softer shadows. Passing deer on the path in moonlight silhouettes them, and the moonlight gleams in their dark eyes.

I’ve had such a moon the last few mornings. The moon wasn’t quite full this morning, but it was perfectly positioned to provide a soft glow for most of my walk, so that I didn’t need my artificial light.

I’m not a fan of Daylight Saving Time, but on mornings like these, it doesn’t bother me quite as much.