Sunrise

Sometimes you wake up just in time to witness a masterpiece. A hot pink-orange sun rising over the horizon, spreading ruby and amethyst streaks across a cloud- speckled morning sky. Brushstrokes of brilliance. Whenever I’m in nature, I try to wake up at dawn, hoping to experience the next most beautiful sunrise. Over time, I’ve realized clouds are what make a sunrise magnificent.

If the sky is cloudless, that great ball of fire rises like an inferno and leaves no wake in the sky. Too many clouds, and the heavens are lost in haze. But when clouds speckle the celestial sphere yet leave a clear horizon line, the bright sun paints the heavens with magnificence.

Beauty is not the absence of flaws. Beauty is imperfection just far enough away from the horizon line to see with clarity. To be able to look back and see everything and still say, “All this is beautiful.”