sunrise thoughts 09 October 2015

We were all so excited... we would be the first class to attend the newly built public high school in town. It was brand, spanking new. It was big & fancy. It was totally cool. But, it was too small for the number of students who lived in the area by the time it was ready to occupy! The area where we lived had grown so fast that all the plans of top architects & contractors turned out to be wrong. And, what was to be a school with plenty of room for growth ended up having to adopt TWO SHIFTS for their students. The first shift (mine) attended school from 7am to 12noon. The second shift attended from 12:30pm to 5:30pm.

That was back in the day when it was extremely rare for students to have access to cars to drive to/from school. Many of the students walked into school. I was one of those students who walked. And, being a first shift student, there were many mornings when the sun was just coming up as I left the house. Maybe that was when my love of sunrises began. 

When we got to school, every single day began with the same greeting (over the public address system) followed by general announcements. Each morning, after having walked in as the sun rose, I heard the words:

Let us each in his own way

Seek to begin the day

Through silent meditation...

This morning I walked along the east edge of our property and then out into the freshly harvested corn field on the south side of the property. I snapped a few pictures and then headed out to walk by the monastery and down our road to the next county road which heads down to the river. My walking partner couldn't walk this morning & I silently observed the sun and the constant changes in color. And, those words from my high school days echoed in my mind...

Let us each in his own way, seek to begin the day, in silent meditation.

When we quiet ourselves, often the silence will speak a multitude of words to our soul.