A Thing of Beauty

For those of you who read regularly, you’ll know that I’ve been striving to wake up earlier in the morning, and get home from work earlier in the evening. For the most part, throughout my life, I have been a night owl. I have always found it rather peaceful at 1 or 2am in the morning, and used to get some of my best school work done then. However, in the last little while I’ve found it rather depressing getting home at 8pm, eating dinner, and basically not having very much “regular” time to do normal things like go to movies or just hang out with friends.

For the most part I’ve now conditioned my body to get up around 7am now, which usually puts me at work around 8:30am and home sometime around 6pm or so. I eat a quick dinner and still have a wack of time to do something with in the evening.

One of the unexpected side effects from this whole shift is that I’ve been able to witness quite a few sunrises, and even the odd sunset from the comfort of my little area by the sea here. Although I’ve always liked watching them, lately they have seemed a bit more lifely and vibrant than I remember. Perhaps the clouds were a little darker these last six months than I realized, or perhaps the rain came down a little harder. But sitting on my patio at 7am with a coffee and a book, watching this city slowly wake up to a ray of light is something I quite look forward to now.

A friend of mine commented recently that he was tired of seeing photos on flickr of sunrises and sunsets. And to be honest, while I respect his opinion, I just can’t seem to get enough of them myself. As I watched the sun set over English Bay tonight with a diet pepsi in my hand, I think I came to realize just why it is I enjoy them so much — it’s because in almost all locations of this little sphere, no matter how bad life is or how many guns are going off, you will almost always see both a sunrise and a sunset in any given day. And in a world so full of problems, it’s nice to step outside, look up in the sky, and see a little beauty and hope from time to time.