Every year my parents come with me to a continuing education conference that alternates between Kauai and the big island. Each location has some unique and wonderful aspect, some small ritual or activity that we like to repeat. This year we were in Kauai. In Kauai we watch the sun rise. It's always incredible. Cliffs line the ocean where we stay and every morning hundreds of people -many clutching their coffee- make their way out in the dark to watch the day break. There is something about it, all these poeple quietly watching just to be sure that great big ball of life-giving fire comes back. We gather there, at the edge of othe earth, performing an act so ancient that is seems wired into our very genes. I can't adequately describe what it means to bear witness in this way, but I can say, that every morning, tourists who should be lazing about in their hotels and condominium beds leave their rooms and walk to the edge of the ocean in the dark.
Every morning is different, because of the patterns of the clouds, the weather, the ocean. But one morning surpassed all the others.
We walked to a quiet, less populated area of the cliffs that was only twenty feet above the breakers. The full moon shone high and bright over our left shoulders, casting our shadows onto the sand. The sky lightened as it always does in the moments just before the sun rises, but this time was different altogether. Instead of a gradual lightening of the environment from a blue cast to the whiter tones of day, everything took on a golden cast and all the shadows disappeared. We stood completely enfolded in warm dream-like light. It lasted for perhaps five minutes but for that short time it was as if we were standing in heaven.
So, even during a wonderful vacation, at a very special time, life still managed to surprise me with something so beautiful that it was life changing.
Just popping in to let you know I'm thinking about you and hope things are well.
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