At Sunrise

Written July 14, 2017

   The bookend experiences of last night's sunset and this morning's sunrise have left me so deeply grateful for this planet.

We walk on sacred ground every single day, and yet how often it goes unnoticed, taken for granted, abused and unappreciated.

Can hundreds of small, wispy white clouds scattered throughout the sky at dawn be anything other than moving, if only we slow down enough to take it in? In the (almost) absence of manmade noise, can the songs and happy dialogue of the panoply of birds be anything less than joyful? And when the sun finally begins to break over the hill and backlights those same wispy clouds with the most delicate pinks, oranges, and yellows, what other response is there but "I'm grateful!" "I'm alive!" "I'm blessed!"?

If you seldom (or never) walk out your door into the quietude of twilight or dawn with an intention to do nothing other than be a witness to whatever gift Mother Earth has to offer in the moment, you're missing out on one of the most expansive experiences available to you as a guest in this breathtakingly beautiful world.