Peace Three Ways - Both/And
It's all in there
One quick glance through my photographs on this site will show that I love sunrises. I have probably photographed sunrises more than anything other than my kids and my dog. (And some sunrises have Scout in them too). But here’s what I have learned about photographing sunrises. The most “photographic” sunrises don’t happen on clear mornings. Clear morning sunrises are beautiful in their own way but there’s something (in my opinion) so much more about a sunrise like this one when the morning light affected by the clouds in the eastern sky. There is a simple explanation behind why the colors show up the way that they do (it has to do with the wavelengths of light - click here for more ) but the interplay between the clouds and the morning light has a significant effect upon how a sunrise is seen.
This sunrise was Thursday morning (winter solstice day). The forecast that morning said it was going to be cloudy and my initial thought was to not bring my camera with me on my walk with Scout. However, as I was about to head out the door, I saw a glimpse of pink through one of our eastward facing windows and I grabbed the camera just in case. Not 10 minutes later, Scout and I were walking west on one of the cart paths on the golf course near our house when I turned as Scout was squatting to do her morning business and there it was - these colors on display in the sky. So, after I took care of cleaning up after Scout, we quickly moved up the hill for a wider vantage point. It was truly a “wow” moment. I wasn’t thinking at that moment about wavelengths and light shifts but just, “wow.”
But here’s the thing - again, for a sunrise like this, the light is needed as are the clouds. Both are necessary to create a moment such as this. The light and that which can block the light are both necessary. It is a both/and.
A pastor friend shared on Friday morning about how this December has not felt like Advent/Christmas normally does. She wrote:
I myself adore Advent/Christmas, but it’s had a different feeling from the outset this year. Perhaps it’s having older teens for whom “magic” isn’t a part of the celebration anymore. It’s also a heavy time in our world, to the point that Christmas celebrations are canceled in the town of Jesus’ birth...I stop short of calling it a funk, because I don’t feel down, I just don’t feel Christmasy in the same way I usually do.1
I have felt similarly this year. Maybe it is that we have only seen a dusting of snow. Maybe it is the heavy time in the world as MaryAnn wrote. Maybe it is the culmination of what has been personally a very emotionally, physically, and spiritually trying year. Maybe it is the realities of our family changing as two are in college and one is only about 8 months away from starting. Maybe it is the dread of what 2024 might be like in our country. Maybe it is all of this blended together in some kind of crazy smoothie of unease that is sipped down while we light candles in worship of hope, love, joy, and peace and waiting for the celebration to take place tomorrow on Christmas Eve.
This moment of peace also speaks of what I shared the last few days - the ordinary and place. This wasn’t some far-flung destination - it was the small 9 hole golf course one block from my house surrounded by neighborhood houses. It is an ordinary place on an ordinary morning. It is normal life.
But as my friend Lisa would say time and time again, it’s all in there. It’s all in there like this sunrise that would not have been possible without the newly rising light and the clouds dotting the horizon. Yes, there are days that the morning is clear and there’s the subtle cascade of colors that emerge and there are others when the clouds hide any glimpse of the fullness of the morning light. But for me, I long for mornings like this when it all comes together...the both/and. It’s all in there.
Nailed it!