Last morning on the California Zephyr

Sunrise seen from a train in Nevada

Mendocino sunrise and sunset

Dawn, Douglas, Isle of Man

 

Cold morning, Podere Campriano

 On the few days when the ground wasn't frozen, the mud was deeper than knee-high boots.

Once-in-a-lifetime sunrise, 2012

Lygra, Norway, 2012

Our Lady of the Airways, Boston Logan International Airport

I've always been curious about the chapel at Boston-Logan International Airport. In Durham the old airport chapel was a small, dark space with fake stained glass. I was surprised to discover that the one at Boston-Logan is as big as a church.

 

It's hard to explain why I find this place so moving. It's partly because it reminds me of Robigus, the rust god--this narrow category, the recognition of its need for a deity. Also because we're willing to travel extreme distances for mourning, and the fact that airlines make exceptions for that kind of travel. I feel like an airport chapel must be used more often for sadness than happiness.

It's partly because airplane flights, especially the overseas, night-to-morning ones, are really an ascent into heaven, and also because they require total surrender, and I am gradually getting more and more afraid of air travel, and sometimes I am jolted awake from one of those noisy airplane-naps by a sudden terrifying awareness of how fast we're going.

Sunset on the way to Boston

Sunrise above the Hebrides, Iceland to Paris