“But dawn- dawn is a gift”

“This is to say nothing against afternoons, evenings or even midnight. Each has its portion of the spectacular. But dawn- dawn is a gift. Much is revealed about a person, about his or her passion, or indifference, to this opening of the door of day.” Mary Oliver

“The opening of the door of day”. I love this. As much as I love sunsets, I prefer beginnings to ends, I prefer hellos to goodbyes and I prefer openings to closings. I love getting up early and watching the sun rise, in every season and everywhere I go. I have woken up at 4:30am when camping in Gaspe in the summer and I have jumped out of bed to snap a photo of the sun rising over the buildings next door, through my bedroom window. I have even gone out on freezing winter mornings, to watch the sun rise over Lake Ontario. I like the light at the start of the day. I like the sun rising in a different spot, depending on the season. I like the quiet and then the sudden explosion of bird calls as they all seem to come back to life, when the first light appears. I like that it is always the same and yet every time completely different. I like the idea of a new start, the promise that a new day brings

Mary Oliver has written a lot about mornings. I like her deceptively simple poetry and this is one of my favourite poems of hers:

Hello sun in my face. Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and crotchety–

best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light–
good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.

Why I wake early, by Mary Oliver.

Valerie