Sunrises are always magical here. I do not know why this is, only that it is so.
Sunrises in Old Home can occasionally be beautiful, but they are confounded by the surroundings: rows of house roofs and second stories, fence lines, the hum and racket of cars shuttling back and forth on city streets. Sunrise becomes lost in the background, just a part of the morning which is almost incidental to people's lives.
Here, sunrise is the main attraction. The world literally starts with the sunrise. There are no rows of reflecting rooftops or cutoffs of the sky by second stories, no cars rushing back and forth. There are only trees and brush and grass, waiting for the first light to stir themselves and wildlife into action.
Given the option of background versus magical, I will always take magical.
Too much time spent surrounded by man-made horizons can lead some to think that man is top-of-food chain. Folks who don't live in cities/suburbs have a better chance to avoid that. One of the biggest dangers of increased urbanization.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, Nylon12. Coming off of this hike, I am blown away by how big the world is and how small we truly are (and, in a side note, how petty and meaningless most of passes for the world is).
DeleteOne of my cherished memories is waking up early on a Saturday in the fall of 1981. I was used to getting up at 0545 to drive the 20 miles to Texas Tech for my 0715 classes. Saturday, I popped awake and just got up anyway.
ReplyDeleteI went out east of the row of lilacs and sat on the old Dearborn two row cultivator. I had a light blanket around my shoulders, our first freeze that year was October 13th. Don't know why I remember that, but I do.
I watched the sun brighten the horizon over the six acres to the east and then peek up to say good morning to the world. That was the very first time I'd ever done that, just to watch the beginning of a day. I was almost 19. Still can feel the chill and smell the good clean dirt.
I'm amazed that lard and saltwater can store that memory for 40 plus years and pull it up when I read words on a page, too. We live wondrously magical lives. Reason 3,596 why I believe in God.
Thanks for sharing STxAR. It is funny how those moments in time can get frozen forever - perhaps God's way of heartening us in less good times.
DeleteYou answered your own question, TB. Nylon12 makes good points. STxAR has a wonderful memory and is spot on about why God is great.
ReplyDeleteYou all be safe and God bless.
Linda, it strikes me that the more we become dependent on technology, the farther away we get from Nature (and probably God) and lose our ability to see ourselves as part of the system. Nature becomes just one more thing to manage and apply.
DeleteExcellent observation. I saw the Moon poking through the trees yesterday, in a way it never had before. It will look like that a thousand years into the future, looking down on Earth. Perspective.
ReplyDeleteJohn, I walked through mountains last week that were essentially the same before Akkadians started baking clay for notes. It really does put perspective on things.
DeleteSunrise is my favorite time of day.
ReplyDeleteLeigh, sunrise and sunset are both my favorite in different ways: Sunrise for the lightening darkness and freshness of the day, sunset for the colors that only seem to come at that moment.
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