A New Day Dawns

There is something special about sunrise.  I sit here almost every Sunday morning in the winter, in my family room.  When I sit down with my cup of steaming coffee and the modern equivalent of a newspaper (my Chromebook), it is dark and cold.  I turn up the thermostat as I pass by and the furnace churns to life, pushing warm air along the floorboards and slowly driving out the chill that is left from the cold dark night.  The process is slow and I imagine a magnificent struggle between the morning warmth and the evening chill.  I have left my fortress of bed and blanket that protected me as I slept and I am in the middle of the fray.  The rear guard of the morning chill lingers on my hands and face while the cavalry of warmth surrounds the enemy and takes away the prisoners.

All the while, I sip my coffee and watch out the large windows into the yard.  I watch this corner of my world go through a metamorphosis from the night's blanket of darkness and solitude to the hope and light of morning.  It is a slow process that happens in an instant. There is the first hint of change in light, nearly imperceptible, and then, almost between breaths, the morning dawns and like water bursting through a dam, the light of the new day pours into the yard.    I'm struggling to capture the wonder of this moment in words.  There are others I'm sure who understand what I cannot describe adequately.   I think it is known to a new mother, nursing her hungry newborn as she looks out the window through tired eyes and senses the hopefulness in the new day and is thankful for the tiny life that is now part of her's.  The blessing of this transition from night to dawn is understood by the lonely person struggling to get through the night and, realizing the hardest moments are over, allows the light of the new day to lift his spirit and consider some hopeful possibilities ahead.  This feeling I am failing to put into words is probably recognized by someone who was not well through the night and for whom the new day brings hope for rest, health and peace.  It is the feeling granted to the young lovers, having spent the night discovering each other and are now reveling in this promise of a new day to share.

The first rays of sunlight on a new day will always inspire me, humble me, and remind me to be thankful for the darkness, without which there can be no dawn.