Change your circumstances....change your perspective...EVERY SINGLE DAY

Every morning I wake up early, before the sun comes up, and I go to the kitchen and put the dogs out, turn on the coffee pot, and (usually) empty the dishwasher. By the time the coffee is done, the dogs are ready to come back in, the kitchen is organized again, and I head to "my chair", open the curtains, settle in with my blanket and coffee, and start my morning quiet time. This consists of several different things, but I try to do them all every morning: journaling, reading some Scripture, reading a designated book, checking into my company's interactive boards and engaging with coworkers, and two days a week I get on a zoom call with 500 other agents from the East Coast to collaborate and encourage and learn. The whole time this is happening, I am watching the sky go from a deep darkness to gray, then to slightly pink, orange, yellow....as the sun slowly comes up over the Elk River, I am amazed....EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. 

This morning I had to leave my house early to help out at our dry cleaners, and I was sad to miss the entire sunrise, but as I drove out of our neighborhood and through the back roads, I watched the sun come up. I went up route 40 and was watching it come up above the Kohls, the Taco Bell, the Walmart. And I thought: wow, the whole world should stop and watch the sunrise. I am so blessed to see it every morning now where I live, and to be able to enjoy it. I feel bad that most people don't get to see it everyday.  Wait, what?  

And then the thought occurred to me.  I will be 52 this July. That is almost 52 years of sunrises and I have missed all but the last year. That is 18,980 days. 18,980 opportunities to take 20 minutes and watch the sunrise. EVERY.SINGLE.DAY! There is absolutely a blog post in that statement somewhere, right? Why now, do I take the time, NO, MAKE the time, every single day to get up and watch the sunrise. If it's raining, I am still getting up, if it's foggy, I am still getting up. It isn't always a beautiful amazing sunrise with the brilliant colors of reds, oranges, yellows, pinks, purples. Sometimes it's just a slow gray awakening that stays that way all day, but EVERY SINGLE DAY I have that chance to see it, and I do not want to miss the opportunity anymore.....I have missed it for far too much of my life. 

Why now? Because I'm almost 52 and learning to slow down a little bit and take some time for myself every morning? Because I joined the 6am club at my company and have felt the benefits of that for the five months I have been doing it?  Because I moved to the water and it just calls to me every day? Yes, yes, yes, and more yes.  My circumstances changed, and so did my perspective. 

I started riding horses this past year with my daughter. I loved it so much, I bought myself a horse so that she and I could ride together. At 51 years old, I learned to ride a horse. Why now? Cause my circumstances changed. I lost almost 100 pounds this past year and now I CAN ride the horse. But one of the most interesting things I have learned about horses is this:
they have the power to change their circumstances with very little effort, but they don't. Horses are so strong, they are big, they are so driven, and they are also so stuck! Check out this meme "Sometimes the thing that is holding you back...is all in your head." This horse in the photo could walk away without even trying. She could break the chair, stomp the chair, or just walk away with it trailing behind her, but instead she stands there, thinking she is stuck, not moving, not looking around, tethered to something that isn't even a threat to her freedom. I can walk my horse, Athena, holding lightly to her lead rope. All she has to do is pull slightly (for her) and I will go flying. She has done it, she had thrown me off, and then she looks down at me like:  oops! I didn't mean to do that.  But, her power is significant, it's truly magnificent, and yet, she will stand on cross ties while I brush her, she will let me pick up her feet and chip away at the dirt she has caked in there, she will follow me around the ring even without a rope. She has learned to trust me (most of the time). BUT, at any moment, she can change her circumstances without even thinking about it. 

So what is the take away, if you haven't already figured it out? Change your circumstances and you will change your perspective....and you can make this happen EVERY SINGLE DAY. What beautiful amazing thing are you missing because you have surrendered to your circumstances? What "chair" is in your head and holding you back? Is it simply because the complacency of staying the same has made you unable to hear what your heart is telling you? Sometimes our circumstances change without us wanting them to, sometimes it is NOT for the better, but in every single day there is a sunrise. Sometimes it's gray and ugly, but it's still rising. So every single day we have to go looking for it. 

EVERY. SINGLE.DAY.