Josephine and I have been hitting the pavement for our morning walks right around the time the sun is coming up. It’s hard to believe that there is a little over a week left in August, but I can clearly see September on the horizon. The morning temperatures have required long sleeves on our walk and a jacket when riding the scooter. The sun is setting a little bit earlier in the evenings and it is a little bit slow to rise in the mornings. As we crossed Troost to head towards Tower Park on Monday morning, I looked at the sky to the East and it was beautiful. So I stopped and took a picture. Because that is what I do. Later when we got home, I sat down to upload that picture, labelling it ‘Monday’ and then I decided that my photography project this week would be a view of the sunrise every day this week.

When I looked up at the sky on Wednesday to take a picture, I was a little disappointed. The sunrise was not all that spectacular. This was the first thought that entered my brain as I went to frame the shot. Then I repeated that thought out loud so I could physically hear how stupid that sounds. Any morning I am up to see the sunrise is spectacular. The fact that the sun rises and sets at all every day is spectacular. After all of these months, you would think that there is nothing left to be taken for granted. Apparently sunrises are something I can still take for granted. For six months out of the year, the sun does not rise in Antartica. Once the sun finally shows up, it stays up for another six months. If you lived in Antartica, you would only see the sunrise once a year. When Talaura and I visited Maine that one year, we made it a point to be at Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park in order to watch the sunrise. We were not the only people present and there was a sense of excitement and anticipation for those very first rays of light to make their appearance. I can only imagine how those feelings would be intensified for that sunrise in Antartica.

The earth turning and the sun rising and falling is one of the only constants I have right now.