On October 18th I took these pictures. With my phone. Out the back window of my house. I was taken by how beautiful the sky looked. The majesty that is the Lord, and, the beautiful view He was providing that morning. I didn’t give much thought to what the pictures meant to me. More so, I just enjoyed the view. Yep, the beautiful sky left me wordless. I know, I know. Me, who is wordy all the time. I, the one who loves words, found myself without them that morning.
7:02am – The light blues, the orangish colors, the yellows, perhaps some pinks. They are just beautiful, aren’t they? It looks very serene to me.
7:05am – The light, shining through, in the bottom middle. The orange, and a touch of bluish purple, above. I see an intensity in the colors in the sky. I feel as if I could look at it forever.
7:10am – I feel as if I can see the ball of sun, almost right in the middle of the picture. Circular, and, ready to pop through the clouds. The oranges are gone. Left with blues and yellows and a softness. This picture leaves me feeling tranquil.
I watched the sky change that morning. Not providing much heed to what it spoke to me. Just absorbing the beauty before my eyes. No, there were not words, nor thoughts. Both of these things came later.
In a mere 8 minutes the sky transformed to an amazing degree. That sunrise was glorious. Beautiful. A gift, really. Yet, the colors, the depth, the beauty, it lasted a short amount of time. I am sure it changed by the second. Had I a fancy photographer’s camera I’m sure I could have captured even more beauty that morning. Really realized how quickly the view the sky was providing was changing. In 3 minutes it went from blues and a little orange, to intense, oranges and reds. In 5 more minutes, it went from intense to mellow, with light blues and yellows.
In 8 minutes, life changed, right before my very eyes. Had I not taken the time to look out the window I could have missed it all that day. I didn’t snap any more pictures after 7:10 that morning. Yet, had I, I am guessing that the picture by 7:15 would have been a simple blue sky. The kind we look at every single day of our lives…the beauty would have disappeared, gone.
Just. Like. That.
Life is changing before our very eyes, every single day. Are we taking notice?
Everything changes. That is the way of life. It is very profound. Have you ever given thought to how fleeting all things in life are? How quickly things change?
It can be seen in our life cycle from birth to death.
It can be seen in the fresh cut flowers, in a vase, on your kitchen table. They start off big and beautiful, and then, before you know it, they are wilted and ready to be thrown away. It can be seen in something as simple as the shelf life on a carton of milk.
So many items exist in between these examples I’ve given. Some more important. Some less so. Yet, everything has its time. A length of time that everything lasts.
With some things, such as that carton of milk, we know, or, at least, we are advised, on how long we should depend on the milk being fresh. How long that carton of milk can be a “part of our life”.
Other times, it is not so clear cut. I’ve had plants that I thought I was taking great care of that one day were green, and then, within a few short days, they turned yellow and died.
I’ve also had friends who I thought would be a part of my life forever, only to have them walk away from my life. I’ve had this happen more times than I care to admit.
Some things are supposed to last forever. Marriage, for instance. Yet, often times, as much as 50% of the time or more, it does not.
We really do not know, from one day to the next, on what and whom we can depend. We aren’t necessarily certain how our lives will change. Yet, we know they will. It is all a part of life. The way of the world.
The pictures I took that morning, they reminded me of this. They reminded me that the world changes around us. Everything changes. You can change with it, or, you can get left behind. You can dwell on what was, or, you can focus on how things are now.
As I’ve spent time, over these last few weeks, looking at these pictures, words have come. The ones in red, below, they aren’t mine. I’m not sure whose they are, yet they are good, and, at least for me, they fit with what I saw that day.
“If you love something, love it completely, cherish it, say it, but most importantly, show it. Life is finite and fragile, and just because something is there one day, it might not be the next. Never take that for granted.
Say what you need to say, then, say a little more. Say too much. Show too much. Love too much. Everything is temporary but love. Love outlives us all.” – Unknown
All you have to do is look around you to know that time waits for no one. Change is inevitable.
Here are another fitting set of words…
“Learning to bear the weight of the passing of all things. It means finding a way to lightly hold all the places we’ve loved and left anyway, all the moments and days and years that have already been lived and lost to memory, even as we live on in the here and now, knowing full well that this moment, too, is already gone. It means, always, allowing for the hard truth of endings. It means, too, keeping faith in beginnings.” – Unknown
Never ignore a person
who loves you,
cares for you,
and misses you,
because one day,
you might wake up and realize,
you lost the moon while
counting the stars.
-Unknown
The sunrise, that morning, was beautiful. It stays with me. The intense, and yet calm, beauty it brought. The reminder that life is constantly changing, right before my eyes. That I can take heed, of what is going on around me, or, I can simply let it all pass by. That I can choose to recognize the fleeting ways of our world, of our lives, or, I can let it all pass me by as well. That there are so many things I miss by choosing not to be present. By choosing not to give of my life, my mind, my heart and more. That there are people, in my life, who are not getting the best of me. And, there are people, in my life, who are choosing not to give me the best of themselves. We are allowing life to pass us by. We are not paying attention to how quickly life, and circumstances, change around us. And, as a result, all that can be, or is being, lost.
The next time you see a beautiful sunrise, I urge you to take it in. Really watch it. Let it penetrate your heart. Realize the changes going on before you. Don’t let life pass you by. As, it will. If you are not careful. Life will change before your very eyes. Moment by moment.
Just. Like. That.
Originally Written 15Nov15
the ticking of my heart and mind 