A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows. Francis of Assisi
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Beep beep beep. Beep beep beep.
It’s that wretched wake-up sound, courtesy of my phone. When it goes off, I roll over. And then roll back the other way. And drag myself out of bed.
After all, it’s a beautiful morning, right?
In an hour, after tea and breakfast, I just might agree that it is, but at first, this former night owl prefers to keep one eye closed for as long as possible.
Getting up with the sun is not something I especially like to do, but I’ve gotten better at it, and sometimes even embrace it. That’s after having spent several years with three early birds, one of whom was a hungry dog wanting his breakfast at 5:00am. It was ruff.
Now, I try to get up by 6:15 after a snooze alarm or two.
And lately, the sun is making its presence known through the bedroom window at around that same time.
I'll admit that there's something appealing about letting the sun wake you up. It's like a silent continual snooze button--gradually getting brighter until you need a pillow to cover your face if you want to keep sleeping.
Most summers, I walk the dog in the mornings when it's cool outside. The sun is up by then but still soft. Drowsy and not quite bright. Sunlight falls on the tops of trees and shrubs but doesn't yet dispel the shadows underneath. You can see and even smell the freshness of the new day. The potential.
A couple of hours later, the sunlight shines in full force, making a walk anywhere impossibly hot. But that's what summer is about--at least where I live. If you're brave enough, you cover yourself with sunblock, grab your sunglasses, drink plenty of water. And look for shady spots along the way.
Because of the sun’s light, we are able to see the rest of creation: the blue sky, a flowing river, flowers in the garden, our loved one's faces. We also need sunlight to lift our moods and keep us healthy.
In addition to that heat and light, the sun gives rise to spectacular sunrises and sunsets. We stop and stare at the view, pulling out our phones to snap some photos, sharing on social media, maybe asking others: Did you see it too? Wasn’t it amazing?
Beyond the big-sky beauty, I’ve lately been looking for rays of sun filtering through clouds or the trees. Have you seen that? The sunbeam makes a natural spotlight, pointing at the ground it falls upon, lighting up whoever or whatever might step into that circle of light. And if that’s us, we could look back up the sunbeam toward the heavens where the Light comes from.
The sun illuminates the beauty around us, but if our gaze stops there and goes no further, we miss seeing the true Light, the Beauty that created it all. It’s as if we have hit the snooze button and don’t realize the sun is making its presence known at our window.
But if we open our eyes, we just might see a beautiful Morning. We might experience an awakening that makes us wide-eyed with wonder. Even a former night owl like me.
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Photo of sleepy owl courtesy of Rob Potter on Unsplash
Photo of yellow lab courtesy of Lucas Ludwig on Unsplash