Sitting on a beach in Aruba watching the sunrise. The saltwater smells pungent. But the air is cleansing. The wisps of pink and orange rise slowly into the clouds and their fluffy pillowed shapes stagger across the sky as if being chased by God Himself. It seemed that only moments ago myself, a hungry crab and the ocean were alive in the dark of the night. The sun brings out magnificent things when it casts its rays onto the earth like a fishing rod into a pond. You can almost see the definition placed with exact precision; in its beginning, the sunrise and in its end, sunset. Once it’s bright light burrows past the shore line it becomes too blurry to see. Can this be what happens when we open our eyes? Our subconscious can no longer be so defined, once we are engulfed in the world, which causes a messy surrounding to disrupt our vision. We know what we should do, what needs to be done, yet we busy ourselves with getting through the day pace by pace or face by face. Sometimes distracted like the sun is with the clouds, the birds and the life forms around it, those that capture our attention but keep us from the goal. Alas another cycle of the day is gone, only somewhat accomplished. I’ve been present, I’ve shown my face, but have I shone through no matter the platform like the sun in the sky? Have I allowed the clouds and encountered life forms to dim my glow. Have I been at my brightest all day helping the dark and forgotten nooks to be included? Have I behaved in a way that would please others? My maker? Myself? Have I done what was expected/needed/appropriate of me today? And how can I possibly know? I can’t imagine the sun wakes up day after day and glides through the sky with all it encounters and makes decisions based upon them. I believe the sun just accepts that its role is to try to shine through. No matter the obstacles or events in the rest of the sky, the sun has only one job, and that is to try to be the light despite the darkness, to love us despite the sadness in the rain. The world is full of light and darkness, love and pain. God has made us each with a job, but you must decide for yourself if you want to be the glowing sun or the pouring rain.