Given yesterday’s loss of sunrise, I woke in the darkness to a resolution not to accept that as a defeat. But rather, to get out of bed early again and see if I might have more luck this morning.
So after organizing the kitty patrol, and making sure all were fed and in place, I grabbed a coffee and raced off into the darkness towards Lake Parker.
There was a distinct chill in the air, which signaled a clearer sky to me, so I had some degree of confidence that I might be in for a better sunrise.
As I drove down the road, recharging my system with a shot of caffeine, I began to make out that it was in fact a mostly clear sky and therefore, the possibility was that I would get something.
Raised expectation is a good motivator and I was definitely in good spirits as I hit lake edge on the west shoreline.
I didn’t even minD that in the first few shots, I stumbled a little to close and my right foot went into the waters. (My toes are still wet as I write this). Undeterred, I continued to capture shots that showed the progression as the sky worked its magic for my lens.
And to make matters better, all the mosquitoes stayed in bed under the blankets because they don’t really do well in these chilly mornings.
So firstly, here are the panoramics that I got and at the end of the blog are all my “regular” shots. I hope you like!
For the record, coffee never tastes better than on a chilly morning. It was one of my takeaways from the morning’s experience.
The other main takeaway was that my nipples are an effective early warning system … when they are up, I am safe from mosquitoes. Point noted!
Anyway, the main actual takeaway from this morning, was that following up a failure with an immediate second attempt can be a real mood-changer.
Because if/when you experience success with the follow-up attempt, you dismiss the earlier failure as simply a step on the ladder towards eventual success.
No matter the tunnel, there is always a light at the end of it. You just have to be willing to keep going.
There are some people for whom success comes easy and fair enough, I am happy for them.
But for the rest of us, success normally follows on the heals of failure and oftentimes only after several attempts.
Like sunrises, much of the success we crave is not within our control. There was nothing I could possibly have done to create a sunrise and in much of the important stuff, there is nothing we can actually do either. Other than try, that is.
Because trying is what positions us to be in the right place at that right time.
If I stayed in bed half an hour longer, yes, I would have been warm and cozy, but I would have missed out on witnessing such beauty. And the charge that this beauty has given me has lifted my spirits to their highest point in weeks and I am ready for what the week will throw in my direction.
While failure brings experience, success brings benefits and unless we are spending our life chasing windmills, most of us will find that the benefits are ultimately worth the heartaches of having had to work so hard for it.
So, I guess what I am saying is, while staying under the covers is always an option, it isn’t likely to bring you closer to your goals. But by sustained trying, we can get there. No matter how deep the tunnel, they all end.
If it doesn’t then it was a cave and you should have known better than to wander off into a dark cave!
… just a thought!
