Sometimes I think really big thoughts. That happened this week, when I took two pictures of the same sunrise a few minutes apart. What profound wisdom* sparked from this activity? The appreciation that even a short amount of time can bring dramatic change.

 

I don’t get it?

 

 

I’ll give you a visual example, 9, but first, for people who may be new to this blog, I need to reintroduce you and Lily.

 

Greetings, Newbies! I’d like to introduce you to my good friends and co-authors, Lily and 9. Lily, an aspiring actress and honor student, is my fourteen-year-old inner self. 9 is a politically engaged 4^th grader (and my inner 9-year-old) who is still recovering from the 1968 presidential election, won by Richard Nixon.

 

He’s a skunk!

 

History is on your side, 9. Just give it some time.

 

Like yesterday’s sunrise. Sometimes I forget how much light influences color. But in just a few minute’s time, the sunrise changed from this:

 

 

 

 

 

Time can work in the opposite direction, too. Like Jacques’s speech in As You Like It.

 

So true, Lily. He describes the Seven Ages of Man, progressing from a “mewling and puking infant”- –

 

I’m gonna tell Mom you said puking!

 

Let me rephrase that. From a baby, growing into the richness of human existence, until their lifetime crests and begins to shrink away.

 

How depressing.

 

Perhaps. But here’s something to consider, Lily. In terms of the sun, when it falls below the horizon and the sky grows dark, though we lose color in the landscape we gain the stars.

 

I’m not entirely sure how this applies to daily life when you’re nine or fourteen, but on the brink of sixty-five it seems worth contemplating:

 

Is there something beautiful in store, after the sun goes down?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*showing a clear and deep understanding of serious matters