There is something magical about watching the light of a new day spread its fingers across the sky as the horizon changes from black to dusky pink to tangerine orange to glowing yellow. Maybe it’s the ancient rhythm that persists despite increasing human impact. Maybe it’s the spectacular color show that sometimes comes with it. Maybe it’s the opportunity to live another day on an incredible planet. Maybe it’s witnessing something that is infinitely bigger than we are, but of which we are still a part. It’s probably all of those things and more. Living on a small lake with a view out the kitchen to the east has afforded me plenty of opportunity to reveal in the first new colors of the day. I am grateful for the daily opportunity to put myself in the way of beauty. After all, it’s going to show up whether I notice it or not. I think it’s better to notice.
As Cheryl Strayed once wrote, quoting her mother:
There is a sunrise and a sunset every day and you can choose to be there for it. You can put yourself in the way of beauty.
At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear. ~Norman Maclean
May every sunrise hold more promise and every sunset hold more peace. ~Umair Siddiqui
There is always a big commotion on the beauty of sunsets, but what about the beginning of the day? The arrival of daylight. Happiness in the form of invisible warmth beaming upon us. Sunrise. ~A.M.L.
Dance when the sun comes up. ~A.D. Posey
Every now and then I sit and watch the sun rise to remind myself how it’s done—peacefully, steadily, warmly, and in beautiful color. ~Richelle Goodrich
This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls. ~John Muir
