Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Sunrise



This morning, as I was driving to work, I noticed something that I do not often notice, and really, do not often see....the sunrise. I only caught a glimpse of the sunrise, I was driving west, into Dallas and I saw it in my rear view mirror. It was a beautiful sunrise, and a lovely, necessary surprise early on a Tuesday morning.

There are not many sunrises I can think of in my life that I have thought, wow, that is a beautiful sunrise, I will remember this forever. There are various reasons for this. The sun rises in the morning, very early in the morning. There have not been very many times in my life, until the past couple months when I was awake, coherent, and looking at the sky when the sun was rising. Even during the past couple months, I am usually too distracted because I'm running late, or too annoyed at the fact that I have to wake up so early to notice the sun rising in my rear view mirror. The rear view mirror is small, and only catches the right part of the sky at certain moments during the drive when it is not being blocked by buildings or cars or trees.

Some nights during my life I have, like many others I'm sure, especially MK's, usually at some kind of conference, stayed up all night long with friends, in hopes of seeing the sunrise. I have never, in any of these situations actually seen a sunrise.

Something that I have seen many times and absolutely love seeing, no matter what....sunsets. I have never seen a bad sunset, I'm not sure that I've ever seen a sunset and thought, wow, I wish I were not awake right now, or missed the sunset because I was too busy. And my theory, one is able to see sunsets more clearly and more often than sunrises.

All of this talk of sunrises and sunsets to say, I was thinking, in my kind of cheesy mind, sunrises are like new experiences, new possibilities, awkward meet and greets, the first day of class, those moments when you don't know what the day has to bring. Sunsets are like closing ceremonies, finales, despedidas after years of friendship, the sense of accomplishment at the end of a productive, good day, or the sense of relief at the end of a not so good day.

Right now, I'm at about 5 o clock in the morning and the sunrise is coming. I'm not sure what the next few months have in store, and especially, what I will be doing in about 3 months. But for some reason, seeing that sunrise this morning, gave me a little bit of peace, a little bit of confidence, its OK if I'm not sure right now, and even though I'm extremely stressed out and exhausted most of the time, this is just the beginning. That might sound bad, but I don't mean, "this is just the beginning" in a bad way. I mean it in a good way, there are good things to come.

The day is young. Getting something started is always harder than keeping it going, or looking back at it after its done. Getting things going when you don't know what is really going on, or what you will be doing exactly is even more difficult, but as I have seen in the past, God works things out, and the day ends with a beautiful, relaxing sunset to celebrate, soak in, and reflect on.


4 comments:

Kelcy Lillianne said...

mmm, that. was. beautiful. my heart is happy. :)

Betty Ann Whitson said...

Claire,
What a beautiful analogy using the sunrise and sunset. If you have learned this lesson, you have come far in your life journey. Both are reminders that things come and go in our life, but God is faithful to keep sending them both to us as we move forward!
Your loving Aunt Betty Ann

Keane said...

You were right! I really did like this entry. Something that I really want to embrace! Thanks for sharing.

Keane said...
This comment has been removed by the author.