Unretouched photos of morning sunrise in St. George UT on December 14 201o
Above, beginning in the east
And moving to the south . . .
And then to the west . . .
Steve Green, in the lyrics to the beautiful song "Morning Has Broken," has written the words "Praise to the morning." During the dark days of the Great Depression in the 1930s, my mother, still in her 20's, was often left alone with her children in a two room tiny home, uninsulated, heated by coal stoves, no electricity, no plumbing, no telephone, 12 miles from town while my dad worked wherever he could find a day's wages. One night the temperature hit 20 degrees below zero and she writes that she bundled all of us into one bed and waited out the stormy frozen night. But then when the morning broke, she writes that, once again, she had hope as the bright rays of the sun lit the horizon and then knew that she could go on.
I think even the bravest among us will admit that maybe once in awhile, if not often, we feel a bit afraid and intimidated by the dark. We can't see, and our minds can wander places we would rather keep it from visiting, and fear and uncertainty can lurk. But morning brings with it a new day, light, maybe even clouds and rain, but a new day in any event. And with the sunrise we look to the east, to the south, to the west, and we hope and pray for a better day, and hope that we will have the courage and fortitude to continue with our lives and find joy in the sunrise and in the coming day. And we give thanks for who we are and what we have and for those whom we love.
