A Sunday Thought About Missing Something Beautiful
We're in the midst of planning for the New Year on this blog. If you haven't started your own planning yet, check out last week's posts and those coming up before Thanksgiving. Planning is important, I'd say essential, not only for your work life, but for your whole life. But...
Sometimes "sticking" to a plan insulates and isolates us. As we doggedly pursue our perfectly legitimate goals and objectives we can miss what's going on around us. For example, one of my daily objectives is to complete my "morning routine": prayer, a few minuted of meditation, reading scripture and some spiritual reading. Typically, it takes about 45 minutes or so, and I get to it immediately, as I'm making the coffee first thing after rising. It's a worthy objective, and I plan my day around it. But November is a special month that calls for a shift in that routine, albeit it a slight one. I'm talking about the red sunrise.
This year - for the first time - I've noticed that the sun's rising brings a gorgeous red sky many mornings. I've never particularly noticed it before, but there it is. I've noticed the red sunsets at night - stunning, lasting only a few minutes, but worth pausing as daylight fades to take it all in. And these days, since I don't spend my work time in a downtown office building five days a week, I can soak up those sunsets more often than not simply by lifting my head up from my work and looking out the window.
And now it dawns on me that - ah, right - the sun brings its November red as it rises too.
Most mornings, by the time the sun rises, I'm into that morning routine, and so I've managed to miss the beautiful November mornings - for years - until this past week. Maybe Our Lord decided I needed a shot of beauty in the morning to shake me out of my spiritual doldrums.
I may research this red sky thing to understand the natural causes of the gorgeous dawn and dusk that November brings each year. Maybe. But for now, I'm just thankful that God directed my mind and opened my eyes to witness His Handiwork these special mornings. It strikes me that, despite my being a sinner who more often ignores Him than not, this loving Father of mine doesn't want me to keep missing something beautiful.
Sometimes "sticking" to a plan insulates and isolates us. As we doggedly pursue our perfectly legitimate goals and objectives we can miss what's going on around us. For example, one of my daily objectives is to complete my "morning routine": prayer, a few minuted of meditation, reading scripture and some spiritual reading. Typically, it takes about 45 minutes or so, and I get to it immediately, as I'm making the coffee first thing after rising. It's a worthy objective, and I plan my day around it. But November is a special month that calls for a shift in that routine, albeit it a slight one. I'm talking about the red sunrise.
This year - for the first time - I've noticed that the sun's rising brings a gorgeous red sky many mornings. I've never particularly noticed it before, but there it is. I've noticed the red sunsets at night - stunning, lasting only a few minutes, but worth pausing as daylight fades to take it all in. And these days, since I don't spend my work time in a downtown office building five days a week, I can soak up those sunsets more often than not simply by lifting my head up from my work and looking out the window.
And now it dawns on me that - ah, right - the sun brings its November red as it rises too.
Most mornings, by the time the sun rises, I'm into that morning routine, and so I've managed to miss the beautiful November mornings - for years - until this past week. Maybe Our Lord decided I needed a shot of beauty in the morning to shake me out of my spiritual doldrums.
I may research this red sky thing to understand the natural causes of the gorgeous dawn and dusk that November brings each year. Maybe. But for now, I'm just thankful that God directed my mind and opened my eyes to witness His Handiwork these special mornings. It strikes me that, despite my being a sinner who more often ignores Him than not, this loving Father of mine doesn't want me to keep missing something beautiful.
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