Early risers.  The birds, the sun and me.  I wake up and begin my day with the process of the french press.  I like the sound of click when I turn on the electric tea kettle.  There is just enough time to let Bruno out to pee before the second click.  If you are a coffee drinker you know the allure of the aroma.    The anticipation of the hotness and the feeling of being AWAKE that comes with the first few sips.  There is another thing I like about the process.  The exactness of a 4 minute brew.  I set a timer.  Sometimes I count it out, taking pleasure in the predictable nature of time.

I also set a timer for sunrise.  It is the thing I do after I have a sip of the brew.  I look at my weather app on my phone and see the exact time of sunrise and then open my timer and set it.  It changes about a minute every day.  This is a two-fold pleasure for me.  I love the predictable nature of the sunrise and I love the technology that allows me to test the exactness of that predictable event.

I haven’t always done this.  For most of my life I have simply taken pleasure in the beauty of a sunrise when I happened to notice it.  But things are different now.

Now I want to get up and find a reason to be like the birds and sing.  What better reason than sunrise?  I am not a singer.  In fact I don’t have a good voice at all.  While singing in church Doug Clarke smiled at me and said “what we lack in skill we make up for in enthusiasm”.

And so it is with enthusiasm I will sing.  Every morning for a year at sunrise.  It will be songs of gratitude.  I invite you to join me.