The Sunrise: Embrace Each Day

Each day of our lives we experience a morning ritual — a moment that often goes unnoticed, can be obscured by clouds, or simply taken for granted. It appears each morning, welcoming the new day. It is constant. It is trackable. It is the sunrise.

What is most interesting about the sunrise is that it does not technically rise at all. It is an illusion. We — earth, the blue dot — are rotating eastward, turning toward the light of the sun. It just doesn't sound very poetic to say it that way: "Oh, what a beautiful earth rotating toward the east." Yet what is so profound in this phenomenon is that we collectively embrace the moment and craft the phrase, "look at the beautiful sunrise." Perhaps it is our psyche continuing to deliver a hopeful, inspiring message.

What else does this moment share with the world? It tells us that we are guided by a point of view — by how things appear to us personally. Even if one hundred people stood in a line as the sun was rising, each person would agree: "that is a sunrise." And beneath that phrase is a shared knowing of something we didn't fully see, but felt to be true.

Look at the messages we embrace each day. We are fed stories, and we look at these creations of the mind and form belief systems about what is real. Are your messages and judgments as poetic as a morning sunrise?

When they are not — when the lens is clouded by negative thought or personal trauma — it becomes difficult to shift perspective. To seek to understand another person's point of view is one of the most challenging aspects of being human. Our judgments are often quick. We have adopted beliefs along the way that form our opinions, and sometimes we cling to them tightly, like a closed fist, telling the world who we are and what we think.

Before embarking on a crusade to burn down the thoughts of others, take a breath. Open your fist. Let your thoughts be free — free to explore the endless possibilities of what is. Hold ideas loosely, like a small bird in your hand.

Turn toward the place that offers an opportunity to understand more — including how others feel. Shifting your perspective can ease your own emotional upheaval and deepen your relationships. If we can embrace the sunrise as a poetic moment in our world, we can shine that same light on ourselves and the people in our lives.