When you wake at dawn, you have no choice. Go outside. The birds are shrieking the song of life. The version of it you are living right now must be lived. Go out. Greet it.

Live in the hope that the answers to all your prayers—all that you lack agency to do, all that you need to light you up, complete you, to make your life take flight—all of that steps boldly over the dewy threshold of the morning, marching in time with the harsh beauty of birdsong.

Don’t go back to sleep. Don’t avert your eyes.  Get up, go out, meet the sun. Let it fill you with heat and light. Rise.

Maybe this dawn is telling you, singing to you. Arise.  Enjoy the fruits of creation.  We can plant trees.  Water them.  But we don’t have to tell them constantly to grow.  We don’t have to stand over them and tell them to extend roots deeper into soil.  We don’t have to watch, hover, or worry.  Bit by bit they grow.

Whether you strive. Whether you rest.  Whether you are young or old or something in between. Male or female or something in between. You are going to have good days and bad days.  Good weeks and bad weeks. Good hours and bad.  Minutes. Seconds….

The moments won’t be predictable.  You will endure miseries. When the chaos clears, may grace find you.  May you embrace life with tears in your eyes and a heart full of love.

Grace dwells in unexpected places—a drop of rainwater glimmering on a blade of grass, the orchid-like flower smaller than your thumbnail—laughter, the warmth of someone’s hand holding yours.  The overflow of gratitude is even more precious because you don’t know how long the goodness will last. 

Practice gratitude as if your very soul depends on it.  Let your spirit pray thanks to life, consciousness, breathing, and the stars at night.

Hold on, hold on, hold on—birds are singing your song, our song.  We are the living.  Our time is now.  For better or worse, we are beating.  We are hearts.  We are winning.

Let the beauty of I love you rise out of you in a song of thank you.  Your voice joining the cacophony.  All life on earth, now, and that has ever been.  Cheers you on.

-Radiance Writer

Photo by Simon Wilkes on Unsplash