A new dawn…

I woke up this morning before the sun.

This in itself is not unusual. What made this day different is that as I went through the actions of living, the sun still did not rise. The clock did its job to mark the supposed passage of time, yet the sun did not rise.

I continued going through the motions, and the sun persisted in not rising. This lowered my already gloomy spirits. I mean, what’s the point of even getting out of bed if the sun won’t even rise? But in stubborn futility, I followed through with the acts of life.

As the day wore on, and the sun continued to fail to rise, a strong feeling of futility began overtaking me. Not being a feeling I like, I decided to do something about it. So I put on some good music, quieted my mind, and decided to meditate, and look to the source of the futility.

At first it was difficult. My mind was stuck on the sun not rising, and the feelings of helplessness. But suddenly, my perspective shifted. I reviewed my day, and realized what the problem was. I had not been living my life today. I had just been pretending to. And as I reviewed my interactions with others, it seemed many of them were doing just the same.

No wonder the sun didn’t rise. The sun must have been thinking, if no one is going to bother actually living their life, what’s the point in me rising? I’ll just stay in bed today.

Good thing tomorrow is another day. Maybe if those of us just going through the motions get up tomorrow with a new sense of purpose, and actually live our lives … well maybe the sun will decide to rise tomorrow.