Appreciation is taught

The other morning I was up early to prepare for my meetings at church. I was out the door as morning light was breaking the grasp of night. I like to drive the back way out of my neighborhood as it cuts through the middle of a well maintained golf course. The low hanging fog patches over the fairways and manicured greens were ghostlike as the back drop of pine trees permitted only scant light to make it through.

I pulled over, taking advantage of a place in the esplanade designed for turning around, and parked. I had plenty of time before my first meeting as I gazed upwards at the bank of clouds being illuminated by the earliest rays, the deep purples and reds constantly changing and becoming more intense with each passing moment. The turquoise blue that signaled the end of night gave way as the sky appeared to catch fire, a slice of gold gleaming on the horizon at the base of the trees in the distance overtook all the other colors which had been presented. As quickly as the colors had grabbed my attention they faded and gave way to the blue skies behind them as the sun washed away all but the memory of them. The bank of clouds remained, now stripped of the jewelry they had borrowed, casually drifting to the east across a robin’s egg blue morning.

How many of us take the time to enjoy a sunrise, sunsets, thunderstorms and forget the cares of the world momentarily? I was on the phone listening to my mother bubble over after having watched a glorious sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean. She enjoys going for walks along a boardwalk and commented that she could only take a few steps and then stop to take notice of the ever changing colors, the birds hanging above the water like so many flakes of snow on a winter’s day, the color and texture of the water’s surface as it touched the sky at some point beyond and everything else. I have heard similar thoughts of gratitude all my life.

It occurred to me that we are taught how to appreciate the gifts we are given. Painters have attempted to capture the briefest moment of a sunrise or sunset, often with great success; how much more spectacular is the natural occurrence which is set in motion as a daily routine for us to enjoy? Consider the vast amounts of water vapors migrating through the atmosphere in varied intensity to create clouds and the patterns they form upon which sunlight may rest and reflect, the oceans the fields, mountains and hills, the forests and all manner of life which come together and in fleeting moments sequenced together form a sunrise worthy of recording in our mind. Have we been sufficiently taught to say, “Thank You, Sir, that was awesome!”?

“And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?” Matthew 6: 28-30