Dawn at Dawn: Sunrise Reflections

I have only recently titled my project Dawn at Dawn: Sunrise Reflections, but I have been taking pictures of Lake Wawasee sunrises and posting them to Facebook since 2018, making it an almost daily ritual at my friends’ request.

Most mornings I post the pictures with time and temperature to my private profile, but some mornings when my writerly self gets drawn into deeper reflection, I also post written reflections to my public page and Instagram.

Born at sunrise and so named Dawn, I have been a morning person my whole life. Even on weekends I rise with the sun, ready for a walk with my dog.

Somebody recently asked how I take such beautiful pictures. My answer was, “I show up.”

I don’t think of myself as a skilled photographer, just a point-and-shoot-with-my-phone kind of person, but showing up seems to matter, for I have been fortunate to witness some pretty amazing sunrises even though my pictures never come close to capturing the full sunrise experience.

Each morning as I watch the sunrise, I remind myself that the world has not ended, and this is no small thing for there have been times in my life when I thought it might. But here I am, reaching mid-century age, burning as brightly as ever.