Sunrises.
Some happy, sad, and just plain amazing.
Watching the sunrise can be so many different things. I’ve had a lot of memorable sunrises.
Taking in the sunrise with friends after staying up all night, just trying to make it until the sun was showing. Sitting on my friend Emily’s front porch just waiting for the sun to peak so we could go run inside and finally get some sleep. Those days were great none of us had real responsibilities or cares about anything. Those nights were fun. Just relaxing and being silly little girls. Talking, singing, and just being.
I remember the night/early morning my grandpa died when I was in 8th grade. I just stood there with my sister in the hospital window and we watched the sun rise. I think I’ll always remember how I felt in that moment. So much pain and sadness. It was sort of just a numbness. It was a really pink sunrise. Mom came over and just hugged us and we just stood there watching G-d’s beauty unfold.
Another memorable sunrise was right before my senior year of high school, during the summer. Hanging out with my boys. Andrew, David, Danny, and Harry. We all stayed over at David’s house one night hung around played basketball at salk, ate popcorn with hot sauce, and watched the topgun because of Danny. It was a good but normal night. Slowly one by one everyone went to sleep but Harry and I. We ended up staying up all night talking and really getting to know each other much more than ever before(even though we had known each other since 6th grade). Anyway as the night went on we realized it was super late and the sun was about to come out so he asked me to watch the sunrise in a cheesy 17 year old boy sort of way so we went out on the back porch and held hands for the first time.
This summer the night before I left for the world race my friends and I all went out to dinner. After that we migrated to Harry and Otto’s apartment and we all just sat around talking, watching youtube videos, and simultaneously freaking out about me being gone for so long. Oh and waiting for Stephen to get to Tulsa after a 6 hour drive to see me for about an hour and a half. I tried with all my might to go to sleep but who could blame me I barely enjoyed my bed for the last night in 11 months…I laid there just thinking. Oh look it was already 5 a.m. time for me to head to the airport. Say all my goodbyes again. Watch my friends from the security checkpoint wave goodbye until I couldn’t see them anymore. I got to the gate and sat there with my backpack and guitar I watched the sunrise on my new life. I was getting ready to embark on this HUGE journey of self discovery, ministry, community, and reliance on G-d.
So here we have the most recent sunrise in my life. Just the other night a couple of the girls stayed over at another teams house, who just so happens to have one of the top ten views in Israel (official in travel books and all.) We set our alarms to wake up at 5:30 so that we could watch the sunrise together. Our sisterhood. Aubrey, Monica, Brenda, Priscilla and I watched the sun rise over the Negev desert. It was pure beauty. No flaws to be found. We just sat there in silence bundled up in out sleeping bags just completely enjoying the view but most of all the company.
I guess I’m just realizing I want to spend each sunrise with the people that I love dearly and who love me just the same.
