Appreciating the Journey

07:40

The familiar tune of my alarm sounded its soft beat as I took a break from composing this post to make some hot chocolate for Lauren. I had just got back home to find her wide awake watching cartoons on the TV.

It's been a long time. A very long time. My alarm was set for 07:40 but it turned out that I awoke at a considerably earlier 06:20. I smiled to myself as I stopped the alarm, reflecting on the past 80 minutes, which wasn't filled with sleep as planned. There are better things than sleep when it comes to the early hours of the morning.

06:20

Lauren's shufflings between her bed and ours awoke me at dawn. I peered out of the bedroom window to see the regular group of ladies doing their morning exercises in the dark to the enchanting rhythm being played out from a nearby cassette player. A look at the clock confirmed that it was somewhere after 6am.

Quickly deciding that it wasn't worth going back to sleep for a mere hour, I threw on a t-shirt and pair of shorts, grabbed the Panasonic Lumix DMC-F2 camera, and hastily made my way down the lighted stairs and out under the dark, somewhat chilly, night sky. One bright star still shed its light above the impending sunrise.

Yes, it was time for me to witness another sunrise. Click here for the last time I observed such a wonder

06:48

06:50

06:57

07:04

07:05

07:07

07:09

07:10

07:15

A fun picture with me in silhouette against the sunrise

07:17

The sun lights up everything...

...a parked car...

...and a row of shop-lots

07:18

07:21

Slowly, gradually, the dark of night became the light of day. It wasn't just the flip of a switch bringing immediate light, but instead was a series of remarkable scenes and colours, as degree by degree, imperceptibly as a whole, the dawning of a new day materialised.

And that's kind of how life goes. While there are occasionally a few dramatic shifts in our journey, the majority of time in our lives goes from one small step to the next, day by day, until imperceptibly, you are suddenly going to school for the first time, or working in your first job, married for over four years, living in a different country, parenting a child of your very own, becoming a grandparent.

Most people's reaction is "Where has the time gone?" They find it hard to accept the change because they never realised the joys of the process. Like the sunrise. We normally arise sometime between 7-8am, completely missing the magnificent process of the sunrise. It was a privilege and a joy to observe the grand procession of the sun's entrance this morning.

Coming to appreciate nature is also a gradual process. It develops until you reach the point where you don't just enjoy the sunrise because somebody else does, but because you savour it of your own volition.

And that's the key. The sunrise is a public event but carries with it extremely personal convictions.