DAWN. IT'S UNDER RATED!

I like getting up before sunrise when the earth is still and quiet.  Sometimes in the warmer months, I sit on our porch and listen to a nearby rooster crowing.  It's loud call beacons a new day.  This morning there is a light frost on the ground and rooftops.  Fog  hangs low in the valley.  It's quiet softness completes the moment.   I like all the white.  It makes our world seem clean and pure.  But that, my friend, is an illusion.

The scene is never the same; the color of the sky constantly changes from pink to purple as the sun makes its way upward.  Each moment is different than the one before so it's important not to blink.  It's my favorite time of the day.  Perhaps,  because it seems to belong to me.  That, in itself, is enough to make anyone feel special.  

It's early December.  Another year has come and gone.  It seems to have flown by.  When I look back on this past year, I realize that so very much has changed.  Time has a way of getting away.  It has a way of going nowhere and everywhere at the same time.   Time cannot be changed, nor halted.  It is misleading.   We think we always have more time..... more time for holidays, birthdays and anniversaries.   As each new day dawns,  minutes and hours unfold.  It brings with it  new opportunities to make memories.   A new day to live with zest,  to love and laugh.  But, ah, there is complacency.  Sweet, sweet complacency.   

One of my favorite quotes by Gilda Radner says it all.  “I wanted a perfect ending. Now I've learned, the hard way, that some poems don't rhyme, and some stories don't have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next.

Delicious Ambiguity.” 

"Taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what's going to happen next"  That's what life is.  Taking whatever we are dealing with and making the very best of it is an art!  It is easy to savor the moment when we are on a spectacular vacation or in the arms of a treasured soul.   Its a whole different story when we find ourselves thrown into a dark valley of pain and suffering.  Making every moment count is one sure way of getting one up of Father Time.  It takes practice.  It takes time....precious time. 

I have a memory of a different place and time.  A time when it seemed as if the clock itself had been completely rearranged.   There was no tic or toc.  It was  2010 and I was living in the shadows of breast cancer.  With each toxic chemo treatment,   time slowed to an agonizing crawl.  A minute was an hour. A day was a week.  A week seemed to be a month....and so on.  It was absolutely the weirdest, most bizarre thing ever!  This would slowly change as my cells replenished and I emerged from the "nadir" cycle.   I never understood why this happened but I have some theories.  At the end of the day, it really doesn't matter.  For me, it was the Summer that time stood still.  

The sun is high in the sky now casting shadows on the porch outside my window.  I step outside and hear a  distant rooster crow.  Fresh Autumn air fills my lungs.  I watch as birds search for their morning meal.  It's quiet and peaceful.  Just the way I like it.   A new day has dawned.   For this moment in time, all is well with my soul.    

 We replaced the batteries in the clock on the wall yesterday.   As my dear beloved dad would say, it's "not keeping good time".  I suspect it has become tired and worn.  It's had its day and  time.  Soon, there will be a new clock on the wall.  A new object to cast our eyes upon as each day wanes before us.    However,  in the end, there will always be  24 hours and 1440 minutes in each day.  All to start over in the morning because dawn is definitely underrated.!