Sunrise

I woke up this morning with a few topics that I’ve been writing about to share, but the beautiful sunrise this morning pushed those topics aside for another day…..you can probably see why:

 

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It’s Sunday morning, sitting in an Adirondack chair just feet from the shore at Lake Norman watching this amazing sunrise.  “Almost Heaven” is how I’ve described it.  Heaven to me is beautiful, peaceful, awe-inspiring, calm, full of light, joy and happiness….this is almost heaven.

I’m up before everyone else with my cup of coffee, just the sound of some birds welcoming the new day.  Closing my eyes as the sun is rising, feeling the warmth of the rising sun as it moves above the trees on the horizon.  It’s so peaceful as the slight fog drifts along the top of the water so effortlessly.  It’s the start of a new day, a blessing that so many times we take for granted.  Nothing we can do will change what we did yesterday, but the new day gives us an opportunity to do more, to do what we wished we should have done yesterday.  The new day gives us another chance to learn from our pitfalls or the pain we may have caused by words spoken in haste or the actions we made towards others, or even how I got onto one child and not the other one because I didn’t “catch” the entire act.  The sunrise represents a new day to play a little longer with the kids, to make the most of our time together.  It represents a new day to encourage the children to be adventurous, to take risks (not dumb risks), but to try something challenging, to not be afraid of messing up, and owning it when they do, something we all need to do.  This sunrise represents a new opportunity to leave a mark on someone else, to be an inspiration by how we treat others and to live the day to its fullest as if it’s the last sunrise.

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Christopher has started listening to Lecrae on my Spotify account.  Lecrae is a christian rap artist and while I loved 90s hip hop and rap back in the day, I really don’t think I can tell you a song, or maybe even a rapper’s name unless it was one prior to the year 2000.  I listen to so many types of music, including today’s pop, just not rap.  So, a few weeks ago, I turned on my Spotify, put my earbuds in and started out on a run around Lake Junaluska listening to the “This is Lecrae” station thinking, “Let’s listen to what Christopher has been listening to.”  Now, I’m not changing all of my music playlists to rap, or even christian rap, but I have to say, the storytelling in these songs is so well communicated and leave no room for misinterpretation on the meaning or the feelings.  The beat of these songs is great for a 9-minute per mile pace too.  If you see me running around Lake J, waving my hands in the air “like I just don’t care,” or like we use to when we heard “Hip Hop Hooray” back in the day, don’t judge me, because I’m probably just feeling it with Lecrae.  To bring my thoughts full circle, a line in Lecrae’s song “Just Like You” says, “I wanna be like You in every way, So if I gotta die every day, unworthy sacrifice, but the least I can do is give the most of me…”  This sunrise represents a new day for me to give the most of me to God, to my children, my family, my friends, my coworkers; to give the the most I can, of myself, each and every day!

It’s time for another cup of coffee, but I just don’t want to move.  The view, the warm embrace of the sun, my mind just dumping thoughts, memories and emotions out so fast that I just can’t keep up….no paper to write on, just the phone’s note feature to capture all it can take.  I considered doing a video “blog” of my thoughts and the view but I have some serious bedhead and probably even eyeball boogers, plus, I want you to use my thoughts, the descriptions of the sunrise and the emotions felt for you to imagine your own story as if you were sitting in this blue Adirondack by the lake; the sun rising on your new day.

Enjoy your Sunday.  I’m going to refresh my coffee now, peek in on the sleeping kiddos and leave this seat for you to enjoy…..

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