A story from September

This morning I was awakened by my oldest daughter. She was excited that she could see the sunrise through her bedroom window and she wanted me to come see because she remembered I love this sort of thing.

“You know how we love to watch the sunrise together?” she said.

“Yes, I do.” I replied.

“Well, it’s happening right now! Come on! Come on!” she continued.

Last night was a late one, but I pulled myself out of bed and I’m glad I did. We went to her room and sat on her bed as we stared in awe at the brilliant array of blues, oranges, yellows, greens, and reds. Some thin clouds rolled over the downtown skyline visible from our Cincinnati home to enhance the view. The clouds morphed into cotton candy and we were detailing every change as the sun continued to rise.

I looked over to see my eldest writing in her journal.

“What are you writing?” I said.

“Just that I’m excited to be able to share this time with you,” she said.

Wow.

Tears welled up in my eyes as I took her hand, kissed it, and looked back out at the morning view. She laid her head upon mine and we sat there until the colors were replaced by the standard blue and white of our daytime sky.

I couldn’t help but wonder about a conversation I had with an old friend a few weeks earlier. He was in a similar setting with his brother and they were watching a sunrise from a beach. My friend asked a simple question when he said, “Whom do you thank for this?”

I think the world is dark in our present time. We are left questioning things on a regular basis and it rarely seems like we have good answers for anything. Whether it’s violence in the Middle East, racial tensions in America, kids bringing guns to school, and on-and-on forever, we are left to throw our collective hands up in disgust and say, “How could these things happen?”

This morning I had a fantastic reminder that things aren’t always in such despair. I was forced to turn off my cynicism and live only for this awesome experience. I truly feel I was given this moment to cherish with my daughter and I, like she, wanted to remember it. I asked myself the same question my friend posed to his brother. To me, the answer is simple.