By the grace of God the darkest of nights give way to the rising sun and another day. Sunrise opens each day with a new beginning, a chance to try again and build upon yesterday’s lessons.
This sunrise photograph was taken on Corolla Beach North Carolina. I had spent the night before sleeping under the stars on the dunes. I was on a 3 day drive from Westminster, MD to Hatteras, North Carolina. The world I had known was gone. Where the road of the future would take me was unknown. I was homeless, jobless and estranged from my children. It was the darkest of nights. That morning watching the sun rise above the ocean, I felt God’s hand on my shoulder. On that day I began the long journey to become the person I wanted, and I believe God wanted me to become. Today, a few years later, this photograph with my own personal quote has become one of my best sellers.
Not all sunrises are as dramatic. I remember one particular memorable sunrise over the Chesapeake Bay. We were on a 3 day overnight trip. We fished all day and slept on the large Bay boat. I choose to sleep on the rear deck gazing at the stars and feeling the salty breeze. I awoke in the morning to glass smooth water, a cloudless dark sky and a hint a dawn in the east. In total quiet, I watched as the sun rose from the darkness and lit the sky a bright orange and yellow. In total peace a new day dawned.
Have you ever seen the sun rise on the Rocky Mountains? During an extended drive across the country, I found myself camping east of the Rockies with the mountains in view to the west. In the morning, while I stood and cooked a typical camp breakfast of eggs and bacon, I looked up and saw one of the most extraordinary sights. The new sunlight of the day highlighted the snow covered peaks. Shadows covered the valley below. In the sharpest of contrasts, the sun highlighted the snowy peaks who majestically stood over the darkness below.
As any fishermen or hunter can attest, the level of excitement for the promise of the day ahead rises with the sun. More opening days reside in my past than I care to count. However, with the coming of each new opening day, as the sun reveals itself with the first gleam of light in the far off eastern sky, I still get excited for the possibilities of the day ahead.
I have spent almost every Saturday following Thanksgiving watching the sunrise from the woods. Many of those first years with my father. He passed away a few years ago. With every deer season opener since his passing, as the new season begins with the rising of the sun, I have felt his presence.
There will always be something special about those Saturday opening deer season sunrises. For the deer hunter it is the time of transition. The months of planning, scouting, and dreaming of the season to come all leads up to those first minutes of the first day and the rising of the sun. No other sunrise is filled with so much hope and anticipation as the sunrise of opening day. Only once can I remember harvesting a buck within the first minutes of the season. However, I know that when the sunrises on the Saturday after Thanksgiving this year, I will be stationed somewhere in the woods. My eyes will be scanning the grayness looking for movement. My grip on my gun’s stock will be just a little tighter with anticipation of the new day and a new season. A season brought with the rising of the sun.
On one particular deer hunt in Ohio, the sunrise returned my prospective on deer hunting. On the last morning of the hunt, I climbed the tree in the morning darkness feeling the pressure of an unsuccessful hunt. I wanted to arrow a large buck in the worst way and valued the hunt based on the taking of a bragging rights buck. Sitting there twenty feet in the air, I witnessed the most beautiful sight. The heavy frost covering the tight growth of saplings glistened with the rising sun. The light of the new day shined through the remaining few fall leaves hanging on, resisting the coming winter. The reds and orange colors shined in sharp contrast to the icy white of the heavy frost. Soon the sun burned the frost away, but the memory of that Ohio sunrise remains vivid in my mind. The sunrise returned my perspective of why I take to the woods.
When we think of sunrise we vision the moment when the bright ball breaks the eastern horizon in all of its glory. But my favorite time of day is those minutes prior to the sun breaking that plane. Those minutes when the darkness begins to fade; giving way to a faint but ever present growing light. For the duck hunter, this is THE time of day. Many tears have frozen to my checks from straining my eyes through the greyness, searching for flying dots in the sky.
The quote goes something like this, “it is always the darkest before the dawn.” This is true, but as I have learned, with each new rise of the sun, the possibilities for the day ahead are ours for the taking. Whether it be from the treestand, a duck blind, a mountain top camp, or a blanket on the beach, the rising of the sun speaks of a new beginning.
