Sunrise, Sunset
A blanket of frost covered the ground on the first real cold day on the Broward this year. I warily traversed the slick dock planks as I carried my trusty Doohickey to capture the morning sunrise. I sure don’t want to fall again kept going through my mind. Today there was not a cloud in the sky but earlier in the week there were some breathtaking red and pink skies in the morning sunrise and pink and golden sunsets at evening time. Winter is my favorite time for capturing those moments on the Broward. I look for days when the tide is in, the wind is calm, and the sky is ablaze with color.
For the most part I have three steady winter companions that I can count on like clockwork; a Tricolored Heron, a Little Blue Heron, and a Snowy Egret . Today started out as it normally does. I heard the throaty call of the Tricolored Heron but by the time I could focus on it flying by, it had flown into the sun. Then things changed. A dark winged shape flew overhead. It was a 3rd year juvenile Bald Eagle. The eye band was still brown, it was beginning to get lots of white head and tail feathers and its beak was turning to yellow as were the eyes. It circled over a spot in the marsh and slowly settled down beyond sight. A few moments later I saw a fully grown adult Bald Eagle fly up the river and land in a tall pine tree across the river. Although they were not as close as I would have liked, I enjoyed every moment with them. Another raptor, a Red-tailed Hawk, a wintering Merganser and a Pelican further made my days.
There are sunsets that take your breath away. One of my favorite authors, Jonathan Cahn, wrote about sunsets in our daily devotions (The Book of Mysteries). To paraphrase the lesson: In the moment the sun goes down, the day is over, the old day. Whatever happened now belongs in the past, todays problems become yesterdays. Its concerns are now yesterdays, its mistakes, sorrows, etc., are all in the past now. Those who embrace the sunset will rise in the dawn of a new day. What a blessing.