Sunrise! Yikes!!

This morning, I woke up early. Either a mosquito was buzzing around in the bedroom, or I have been hearing mosquitoes buzzing around so much that I hear them even when they're not there. Regardless, dawn was approaching, it was just after 6, and I was awake. So I got up.

I noticed that the sun wasn't up yet. Downstairs, I put on coffee, got Roy's camera, and went out onto the deck to watch and take pictures of the sunrise. About 6:40, I let the spruce partially obscure the direct sun and took some pictures. I haven't downloaded them yet.

Once the coffee kicked in, I was surprised. Sunrise at 6:40, though earlier than the 7:30 sunrise I was happy about in May, and far earlier than the 8:40 sunrise of early November, is later than waking at 4 to golden (though still pre-dawn) skies, as I did in mid-June.

Time is passing. (I know. Stop the presses.) Sometimes I think life was easier when I really thought seasons changed all at once, even though as a kid I found those dates on the calendar confusing. "Autumn" in Oklahoma gets rolling in November; spring sometimes pushes up crocus in January or February (and frostbites it in April). Although I've tried to become more aware of the exterior world in which I live, it seems physically impossible for human beings (at least this one) to perceive daily incremental changes in seasons.

So perhaps mornings like this one function like birthdays or other milestone days. Maybe their job is to call attention to something and let me be aware. I appreciate the opportunity to be mindful of time's passage. But it does engender a "yikes!" or two, and I don't dread winter's approach, truly.

It's just that--well, that time is passing. Perhaps it's happiness that, in part, causes my mixed feelings about that. After all, when the present is so fabulous, it's hard not to cling to it, even though the future promises to be fabulous as well.