Fans of old Madonna movies might recognize my theft of titles above, but the truth is that yesterday was about as miserable a day as I have experienced in years and I woke this morning most definitely in need of a sunrise to refreshen my soul.
Nothing awakens the senses like a sunrise and it doesn’t even have to be a spectacular one … it just needs to be.
Sunrises are nature’s reboot and now that we know that the earth is flat and the sun revolves around this heavenly creation, we are also given the chance to recreate ourselves with each new dawn.
Yesterday’s crippling moments get replaced with a whole new set that are hopefully less crippling and our horizon takes on a new possibility as the sun begins to introduce itself to our new day.
The sun of course is scientifically simply a star that is burning and will eventually burn out and at some time in the future there will be no sun to rise. But frankly I don’t expect to live that long (nor should you) so the relevance of that fact is lost.
But can you imagine a world where the sun didn’t rise? How would we begin a new day? How would we establish a new objective as we got out of bed?
Truth is that we probably wouldn’t and hopelessness would ensue.
But until then, we can continue to live in hope. And I do!
I hope you like these few images. You can see where this morning started with a little definition on the horizon and how it morphed for a few moments into a wonderful collection of yellows, oranges, violets, and blues.
As I drove home, it did help my heart a little and it really made me think about how issues can come at us out of nowhere, pummel us with stress or sadness, and overwhelm our senses to where the end of the day brings only sleep (if we are lucky) and often no solutions.
But when faced with this kind of situation, we can be well served by an approach that allows us to close off a day in a box called “past” and renew ourselves with a dawn and a fresh perspective.
Residual upset or stress from a past moment mutes any forward motion. It depletes our energies before we even set first foot on the floor and makes us rehash all the negative emotions of the prior day.
We deserve our sunrise. We deserve our chance to head off into the day’s adventures with hope in our hearts and a belief in ourselves. Without either of those, we might as well just pull the blankets up a little higher and keep our eyes closed.
For me, this morning, the metaphor was the reality. I used the freshness and beauty of the physical dawn. That I am fortunate enough to live somewhere where this often happens, is indeed a blessing.
But even in a cloudy,rainy, sunrise, the sun still rises. It may be behind cover, but to borrow the slogan of my favorite football team, “out of darkness cometh light”.
Once the darkest of blackness has befallen us, there is only one direction for things to go. They have to get brighter.
There are loved ones around me suffering unspeakably right now and all I can say is to persevere and to do so in the strong knowledge that your sun will rise again.
And when it happens, I wish you beautiful colors, fresh breezes, and the sounds of songbirds welcoming in the new horizon!