There aren’t many people, when dragged out of bed, heavy legs and droopy eyes, that don’t appreciate the beauty of a sunrise.

I LOVE sunrises!! I often actually choose my job, based around whether the working hours allow me to catch the sunrise, or if not the sunset.

The natural beauty, the promise of a new day, the fresh crisp morning air, the silence and serenity as you share that moment with the big golden ball of light and warmth. It fills my cup, every morning! I can’t get enough of it! …at least that’s what I thought.

I took a new job recently, that would allow me to see the sun rise, every morning over the water – my all time favourite! I committed to getting up every morning, to stand in awe and start my day in the best possible way. Then, this morning, it hit me; watching the sunrise every morning, is a lot like falling in love.

First you’re captured by the beauty – there’s nothing like it. You like the way it makes you feel – warm and happy on the inside, smiling on the outside. It leaves you bouncing off the walls all day, a happy and blissful mess, leaving everyone wondering what you’re on. You want to feel and experience this again. So you decide to meet again tomorrow morning.

As you continue to meet, you begin to grow accustomed to the beauty, the feeling. And without realizing it, you start taking it for granted. You get up and just expect the sun to rise, to be there. You don’t notice the colours, or the way it reflects off the water. You don’t feel the slight touch of golden warmth cutting through the chill morning air. You don’t sit and take time to appreciate the beauty of it all.

Then one day, you notice it’s not there. In its place are dark and heavy rain clouds, threatening to break. The day is beginning, dawn is here, but there’s no miraculous show of colour, no golden orb rising from the distance in a far away land, no glowing light tracing it’s way around the clouds.

And you realize. You are so used to watching the sunrise, that you’ve taken the whole experience for granted and stopped seeing the beauty in it.

Just like falling in love, once you’re over the “honeymoon period” finding the joy, seeing the beauty, chasing that feeling – it becomes a conscious decision. It becomes a choice. You start choosing to love. You choose to show up. You choose to slow down, to consciously appreciate the true beauty in front of you. To love like you loved the very first, and second, and third time you saw. To immerse yourself – wholly, to withdraw from all that’s going on around you. So you can sit, for just a while, and feel it again.