Happy New Year!

Good morning and Happy New Year from San Diego! This was our New Year’s dawn; first light was about 5:30, these were the colors at 6:30, and the sun rose a couple of minutes before 7.

Karen and I watch these events every morning from the glider on the south porch of our house. We call it “Glider Time.” It is just the finest way to start the day: coffee and the colors of the dawn, and quiet talk about our lives and the day to come.

Our ancient ancestors in the Northern Hemisphere knew about the sun settling lower and lower into the southern sky as the days lost their length and their warmth. It must have seemed to them that the sun was going away and eventually would disappear, leaving them to survive in the dark, which they feared, and the cold, which they knew could kill them.

But then a day arrived when the sun turned around and came back toward them, giving them longer days and gathering warmth. They learned to identify that day, which we know now as the Winter Solstice, and to celebrate it, for their salvation and for the promise of new light and warmth it brought them.

The same is true of every sunrise, bringing new light and warmth to our potential on this earth to make the best of it. A beautiful sunset is the rainbow of a day’s storm passing, promising the sun’s return from darkness. A beautiful sunrise is the fulfillment of that promise, offering us all a blank new day to fill to the best of our potential. The Jan. 1 dawn is the strongest symbol of that potential, coming so soon after the Winter Solstice and on the first morning of the cycle of days by which we measure our lives and our history. We watched the sun’s beautiful heraldry this New Year’s morning, awakening us to the promise of this first day, and of the year to come.

Our intention is to share every San Diego sunrise with you this year and welcome you to join us daily to share the beauty and feel the promise.