Then comes the morning

There’s magic in the morning. When I was a young girl, I would sometimes get down and out over some teenage romance gone sour or Daddy’s strictness, and Mama would always give me the same advice: Go to bed. Things always look better in the morning. And they always did.

I don’t know why it works. Maybe all the anxiety is discharged through my bizarre dreams. Maybe the mind just needs to rest same as the body. Whatever it is, the morning sun is medicine to the soul. Every morning is a gift from God – another day of love and life, a fresh start, a chance to live life better and make better choices than I did the day before. Yesterday’s arguments seem silly, failed diets begin anew. That long-delayed project might actually begin today. Yes, there is excitement with each new day.

Surely nature intended that we would rise with the sun. Now that I’m retired, I have that luxury. The one thing I hated most about working was having to get out of bed while it was still dark outside. It just wasn’t natural. But there was a payoff – when I drove to the end of the road leading out of our subdivision, I often saw the sun rising over the pasture across the road where horses grazed. I turned north, but then quickly turned back to the east and drove to school watching the giant red orb rise over cotton fields and farms. By the time I reached the school, I had prayed for the new day and was ready to face a classroom of energetic teenagers.

People wax over spectacular sunsets, but to me, a sunrise is so much better. Sunsets signal the end – the end of day, the end of life. A sunrise is a newborn baby – a new beginning, filled with hope. And it is beautiful. There could not be a more lovely sight than that of the sun rising over the Atlantic Ocean. I never go to the beach without getting up early one morning and walking down the sandy beach as I watch the firey red orb of the sun emerge from the water and send a stream of colored light across the ripples. It illuminates the low-lying clouds with streaks of orange, red, and gold before it rises above them and transforms into the smaller, much brighter yellow sun that lights the day. It is breath-taking. I think of all the poor, deprived souls who sleep in till noon and never see such beauty.

Yes, there’s magic in the morning.