Sunflowers at Sunrise

Everyone has those days where they find themselves waking up before the sun does, maybe for school, work, or  a road trip.
Your alarm goes off, you fumble for the snooze to steal back a couple more minutes.
Rubbing your eyes, you stumble towards the shower or that quick bowl of cereal.

It seems like this is the worst. Why, why did I have to get up?
This is insane, how can anyone do this?

That's what I used to think.
Then, I discovered sunrises.

Okay, so I know they've been around for awhile. Okay, fine, forever. But somehow I've been let in on the secret.

Years ago, while I was at the beach with a group of friends I woke up at 5:00 am. The sun had not woken up, but I was. I pulled into the Wawa, grabbed a coffee, and found myself on an empty beach waiting. All of this while my friends slept in til noon. I just didn't do this for one day either. I found myself waking up every day.

The next summer I started running, but not at the normal human time of maybe 10:00 or even 9:00 am. I was up at 6:00 am. Maryland weather is humid and I am a baby when it comes to heat, so I mustered what little motivation I could and got my butt up and outside. With each early morning, I found myself unexpectedly falling in love with running and further in love with sunrises.

Don't get me wrong, I find no joy in hearing my alarm go off early in the morning or leaving my comforter cocoon.

What gets me up is the beauty of a sunrise and everything that accompanies it: the fresh start of a new day, a sleepy world not woken up yet, the peaceful quiet. It feels like the only ones awake are you and the sun. It's magical.

This is why I found myself in a sunflower field at sunrise.
Yes, I could have slept in.
Yes, I could have seen the field later that day, the field wasn't going anywhere.

But then the magic would be gone.

That morning, surrounded by yellow, I saw the world wake up and sunflowers dance.
And I danced with them.

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