Look. Love. Live.

UPDATE: August 2019:  To join me in my next one-year blog challenge, "My 60th year in 60,000 words," go to robincliffordwood.com and look for my new blog: You'll Never Be Quite the Same.

final sunrise of 2010:  7:13

FOR FUTURE SUNRISE PHOTOS AND REFLECTIONS, BOTH FROM ME AND FROM CONTRIBUTING READERS AROUND THE GLOBE, JOIN ME AT THE SUNRISE BLOGGER.

(http://thesunriseblogger.blogspot.com/)

(you may contact me through the blog, or at robin.everyday@gmail.com)

I did it!  YAY!!!  365 consecutive sunrise outings in 2010, and what a gorgeous sky display I had to finish off the year.  J and T offered to join me on my last sunrise excursion (and had secret plans for confetti), but I decided to let it be just another regular day, a solitary walk with my three doggie friends.

A walk under the rising glow of dawn is full of discovery.  Here are a few things I've learned from a year of getting up to meet the day:

LOOK.   Look around the world you are in.  Take note of the cycles of the natural world, the advance and retreat of life all around us, all the time.   Take note of your own part in it, no less significant than any other single living entity that is part of this massive conglomerate of biological perpetuity.   Look around at other people and other animals.   Be aware of the journeys and travails that everyone is facing all around you.  You are not alone.   Look into your own heart and soul, into the depths.  Where is your passion?   What is your path?  What nourishes the essence of you?   See what drags you down and what lifts you up, and seek the latter.

LOVE.    Love yourself.   Love the world.   Love your place in it.  Love your work and your dreams. Love the fact of existence.  Let love insert itself into every relationship you have, even the 30 seconds you spend with the checkout girl in the grocery store.   Seek love out, and where you can’t find it, try to insert a little love in.   I am talking about the truest love – generous, caring, grateful, celebratory love.  That thing which calls itself love but is really dependence, or greediness, or fear, or a power play, is only a sham of love.  Yes, love can hurt, because sometimes the noblest exercise of love is letting go, saying goodbye.   But shutting love out hurts more, for far longer.  More love equals a better world, period.

LIVE.    You CAN do it.   Don't underestimate yourself.  Sleep is overrated; you can catch up later.  Sometimes you have to hurry; the best things don't always wait.  Sometimes you have to linger; the best things aren't always the ones you're expecting.  Life is complicated and contradicts itself; don't expect otherwise, and you'll be delighted.  Adapt.  Engage. Act. Take part. Think, look, do, read, write, initiate, walk, run, travel, dance, sing, call, converse, create, caress, give, exchange, hug, care. Saturate all of your senses with the experience of this beautiful world.  When your enthusiasm flags, borrow some from a dog.

Happy New Year!