The Absent Uncle: Sunrises

My wife and I are finishing up our fourth week in our favorite vacation spot – there is that ‘vacation’ word again when retired – (still working on that article) and it seems like every day in April is a birthday, anniversary, or some special day for someone we know.

For the past few years, I send appropriate –at least I hope they are appropriate – sunrise pictures from our beach front viewpoint along with my greeting.

Quite probably I have a thousand or more sunrise photos from places from wherever I have been. Sunrise is my favorite time. I am an early riser, usually far before sunrise. I love the quiet, the lack of movement, and just the serenity of those early hours.

I don’t need to be up early; I don’t have an excuse for getting up well before sunrise other than a bit of excitement about the start to an early day. I was always part of an industry (school bus transportation) that certainly was about getting going early in the day – and usually, I was the first person to arrive in the various operations I worked in through the years, regardless of my official position in the organization.

Getting up was just not a problem.

And then there were the sunrises.   

The magical colors; the play of the light on the clouds. Shades of light that just made each days’ beginning unique onto itself.

Occasionally I will just flip through my sunrise photo file. Do I see similar scenes? Certainly. Identical? Never.

The colors, the shapes of the clouds or the lack of clouds; the occasional boring – no fabulous – unspectacular view is also one to relish.

I guess I just enjoy the start of the day. Those once-in-a-lifetime scenes.  

That is what I send to my friends. I am thankful they are not from the old Kodak moments you had to wait for to be developed and be disappointed with “why did I take this picture” reactions (and have to pay for), but in today’s world of phone cameras and instant gratification, I can snap away. 

I love those sunrises. Every one of them is special and when I look at my calendar and see a special day for someone special to me – well that sunrise is even a bit more special.