Wake Up at Dawn

 

Each day brings another way to look at things to do. 

It also can be a way to look at who to become or what new questions to ask. 

 

That is what I bring to you as the day has begun with this look for us all. 

 

Do you get up in time to see the sun coming over the mountain? 

 

Perhaps where you are it glides over a river or stretches near open fields. It can come in towers of concrete and deep red canyons. 

 

I have been to all of these places at times. The sun comes up and wakes me to begin again in all of them.

The mountains are what greet me as I wake up at dawn.

The mountains are what greet me the most so I will describe them as I wake up at dawn with different perspectives. 

 

You can see that the sun has popped over one ridge in the distance here. 

 

The beginnings of why I am waking at dawn may be explained with the tree outlined nearer the foreground of this photo. 

 

Can you tell that I am waiting for the full rays of the morning to reach me? 

 

If not, I will tell you that I stood in this place for almost thirty minutes to watch and know what the day held for me. 

 

The sky is also waiting to change from yellow to peach then to light blue until the full deep blue comes later. 

 

Colors deepened along the mountains as the brightened dawn streams across them. 

 

This quote may give you a glimpse as to what I am going with, as well. It is from Kahlil Gibran, the author and poet and one of his writings. 

 

“To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;”

― Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet

 

My heart cannot help but leap as if finding wings when I see the dawn each time. 

 

It’s as if there is hope coming every time. 

 

I will tell you that I have created this hope in times when the trees didn’t look like they were going to emerge out of the shadows and the mountains felt too far to reach. 

 

Yet this quote brings a second part that I have sat with at dawn. 

 

I have sat with other parts of the day to find what could be meant by having a winged heart that gives thanks. 

 

Think about that with me, if you have the moments here. 

 

Did you pause? 

 

Do that now if you can. 

 

Ok, now let’s breathe through it together. 

Not have time to wake at dawn and wait.

You may have been like me at times and not had time to wake at dawn and wait for the full morning to come to the day. 

 

Looking for the full blue sky doesn’t always come along like the picture you see here. 

 

It does seem like an ideal time of life so what happens when it is not this ideal?

 

Sometimes we wait for another time to come. 

When feelings of this and that can be here at the same time. 

 

That is the second part that came to me when I found this from Kahlil Gabran. 

 

Giving thanks for another day of loving is what has given me time to learn and grow into how I look at things.

 

Where did this begin?

 

Once upon a time I started writing to a young one in our home. 

 

The words written were for his eyes when he became grown, and I could share them. 

 

A red journal is where I began writing to talk about what was happening, the joy, the growing and the adventures. 

 

Then life changed and I was not sure if this journal was going to be read by that young one. 

 

Yet, I continued to write for years until suddenly there was an end to the red journal entries. 

 

There came a time that I changed from talking to that young child to who he was becoming as a young man and who I was becoming. 

 

When the dawn and shadowed mountains were in the picture together like this. 

 

It was beautiful, like life. 

 

It all began to be centered around gratitude for every little thing. 

I became more attentive to a sunrise.

You may have guessed that I became more attentive to a sunrise and what each dawn brought. 

 

Yes! That was the shift for me. 

 

Gratitude for the love in our home. 

 

Gratefulness for the people who came into our realm. 

 

Being able to look up on the way to a children’s hospital in the early hours while seeing the sun pop over the mountains we both loved to explore. 

 

Happiness in the moment before the next unknown event came. 

 

If I had three minutes or thirty seconds at that time, I would find myself pausing to look deeply into the eyes of those around me. 

 

That’s when it dawned on me. 

 

Watching for what I could learn, remembering what was happening, being in that very moment. 

I reached for hope what I was able to wake at dawn.

I reached for hope in each second and found that when I was able to wake at dawn to create it, I could tuck it away to access it another day. 

 

Here is what I know now. 

 

Being able to look up, see the dawn and know that those days did exist with pure joy and gnarly intensity is what keeps me seeking for the answer to what I can do next. 

 

What did your winged heart bring you? 

 

Let’s find a way to keep that going together, my friends.