I almost missed the sunrise this morning. My body jolted me out of sleep, and I could see light shining in through the window shade. I looked at my phone. My alarm never went off! I had turned it of by accident yesterday. I rushed to the window and saw a brilliant yellow sunrise, already happening and sure to disappear soon. I would have to get outside quickly, and there was no guarantee I wouldn’t miss the best light of the morning.
I had all my equipment ready to go from the night before, and was able to get outside in a matter of minutes. As soon as I stepped outside, I realized I had lucked out. The yellow I had seen a few minutes prior had turned into a fiery orange and pink.
Knowing that I didn’t have much time to spare, I raced down to my favorite spot by the waterfront. I’ve taken a lot of my sunrise photos near this spot already, and I had originally planned to go to a different location, but with time of the essence I didn’t want to take any more chances.
The location worked out to my advantage anyway. A tugboat was docked in the cove, silent and still. Ripples of water gently rolled towards me, reflecting the orange sky above. Clouds hung overhead, with an opening of light burning through at the horizon, as if the sky had been torn open behind the city.
A few lessons learned today. First, as I’ve stressed over and over again, is the importance of preparation. Also, getting into a routing and waking up the same time every day programs your brain to automatically wake up at that time, even without an alarm. And sometimes you just get lucky.