This happens occasionally, and I can usually fall back asleep, but this morning I could not. No matter how hard I tried. Then the birds started chirping at about 4, and if you are wide awake, the chirping of birds may as well be rush hour traffic.
I was getting more and more frustrated as time ticked on...until I saw the sky start to lighten through the seams of my tightly shut blinds and I thought about the sunrise.
When I worked waterfront at Green Bay, my favorite part of the job was driving boats before breakfast when the water was the calmest. As the July would move into August, the days became shorter, and I would consistently find myself skimming across the lake while the sun was rising.
An Okanagan sunrise in a boat is probably the closest thing to heaven on earth.
Remembering this, I dragged my seething self out of bed, grabbed my camera, and walked down to the water. The air was crisp, not yet baked by the height of summer. The only sound came from a particularly obnoxious seagull, obviously peeved that I had invaded his beach.
The sky was dusky yet cloudless, turning from yellow to slate to light blue to pink from east to west. I sat on the turquoise dock with the peeled paint with my toes in the water and sang (woefully out of tune) hymns to myself. I sat, and I waited, and I took in the beauty around me.
I like to think that God roused me as he did Samuel.
A week into my new position at work, I can see the responsibility growing rapidly and the possibility for stress to sneak in. Perhaps He knew that I would need a little reminder to slow down and take it all in.
Looking west, I could see the mountains turning purple as the first rays of sunlight hit, so I stood up and took off the lens cap and waited until the sun broke free from the horizon.
14.7.08. Cropped to 3X5.
No comments:
Post a Comment