A Sunrise on the Lake

All my life I thought I’d end up living on a lake and waking to one of the best feelings I think one can have, experiencing the morning with a sunrise coming up over a lake. All mornings are special in the fact that you get a new day, cleansed by the night before, to have a day holding promise that might be your perfect day. Many mornings, this can be spoiled by the immediate realization that you have to go to work or you have some task waiting for you that needs to be done, pleasant or unpleasant. If you’re lucky, maybe you love what you do and can’t wait to begin, the sunrise being just a mind reset to put you in the right frame of mind that you can create. For a moment, even if you are about to embark on a day that you’ll dread, you can have that moment where everything in your life is right with the world. If you choose, you might give thanks to our creator for the majesty that has been provided this morning. Whether we find ourselves at a lake in the mountains, on the plains, the piney woods, or the desert, there is that instance that it is the most beautiful sight to witness. A sunrise is a clean slate on a new day.

I have been witness to some of the most beautiful mornings anyone could ask for. As a kid, my folks loved taking us to campgrounds in Texas. With such a contrasting landscape between East Texas and West Texas, it didn’t seem to matter, the smell of coffee in the percolator and listening to the perk, over and over again, increasing in frequency until you here that one point of an escaping drop hitting the fire. Later it would be done on a camp stove, graduating from tent to pop-up, and later the hard-sided trailer. But nothing else mattered seeing the smile on my dad’s face, almost as if to say, here you go son, behold beauty and enjoy! This to be followed by pecan sticky buns and the smell of bacon frying. It’s probably no wonder that I’m overweight as I’ve associated the perfect mornings with food and coffee. I’m still chasing that feeling every morning my feet hit the floor just prior to sunrise. My day seems lost when I sleep in too late not being able to absorb my favorite time of day. Dad and I alone, the crispness in the air, hearing my mom and sister giggling inside whatever lodging accommodation of the time, and watching and learning what is important in life. Simply loving a moment.

I’ve enjoyed this from Yellowstone mornings at Yellowstone Lake, to Lake Tahoe, and as far back as some of my oldest memories of Toledo Bend and Sam Rayburn lakes. It doesn’t matter that some were made by the Corp of Engineers or if it was the great creators work, they all hold the same magic. I’ve woke and enjoyed sunrises on many rivers too, but lakes hold a special place to me. I suppose it is the memory of a morning that was my best morning ever. I particularly enjoy tree lined lakes in the mountains or in East Texas, mostly because this is where my love for a sunrise over a lake began, but I can imagine there to be some magnificent sunrises over a lake in Vermont with a mist off the water. The slow lapping of water at the edge of the lake, fishing jumping and showing off their physical prowess of a catching a fly a foot above the surface, and a deer meandering by in search of the perfect blade of grass. Do they enjoy the grandeur of things as well?

I’m sitting here watching the lake as I write with the occasional far-off boat speeding by fanning a fishtail of sunlight behind it and the gentle movement of the water as the sun is dancing off the waters surface. I’m inspired to find many such mornings in my future. I’m watching a smaller something swimming along in the inlet of flooded water into the trees and trying to decide if it’s a beaver, otter, or nutria. I feel it’s too long for the nutria, but not really the point, it’s wildlife in and around the lake that is wonderful. My coffee steaming in the sunlight through the window and eating my morning breakfast sandwich from fresh eggs given by my cousin. Even Lucy feels a treat this morning by getting a piece of sausage, all hers, and a plate to lick of the remains of my breakfast. This morning is bringing the magic of my past.

My senses seem heightened, my interest on high alert as each minute brings a different view with the sunrise. Others are waking around us, dogs being walked, slumber eyes being rubbed with the morning building to it’s full activity of the day as we get on with our days adventures ending with a fish-fry tonight after a morning of fishing and seventy-two fish caught yesterday. Guests, my cousin and husband, and us to share a meal and watch what holds a close second to my sunrise mornings, the day setting with a brilliance of color as the day comes to a close. In that moment, nothing else matters.