Sunrise, Rainbow, and Rain

Today would have been a great day to sleep late, except my body had other ideas. After a restless night, I woke up hurting from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. It had been raining outside, so it wasn’t a big surprise that my arthritis had overruled my meds.

I tried re-medicating my knees, but still couldn’t go back to sleep. Finally, I crawled out of bed and grabbed my walker for a trip to the medicine cabinet for my arthritis-strength Tylenol.

Since it was almost six o’clock, I decided to go ahead and brew my coffee. I pushed the button on the pot. It spewed and sputtered for about twenty seconds and shut off. After lifting the almost empty carafe, I realized I hadn’t prepared my pot the night before.

After the coffee was brewing, I turned off the security alarm because I’d decided it would be a good morning to sit on the almost finished sun porch to drink my coffee. Turning off the alarm signaled the dog to stretch in preparation to going outside. “Okay, I’ll take you out while the coffee is making,” I told her.

Being awake so early made me think of Jim. He was a morning person and liked nothing better than starting the day drinking coffee and playing his guitar. As the dementia progressed, he often sang a cowboy song about having a bad day. It was stuck in his head and he sang it repeatedly. I suppose that somewhere in the recesses of his mind, he knew his good days were mostly behind him.

As soon as I stepped outside, I noticed that it was sprinkling rain. I glanced over to the East and saw the sun peeking through the clouds. In the West, I noticed a very faint rainbow and following the arc, the rainbow was brighter in the South.

I hustled the dog back inside and grabbed my camera. I captured what my eyes had seen and thought about the wonders of early morning, life giving rain, and the promise of the rainbow. It made me wish that I took time each day to appreciate the beauty that surrounds me.

As I sipped my coffee, I could feel the pain leaving my body. I looked out at the trees, the crops in the field, and at the backyard where the grass is sporting spots of green among the sun-scorched patches of brown. I heard a lone bird chirping.

This is how I had always envisioned retirement would be, and yet this kind of morning is rare. I suppose it’s my own fault, but it seems that too much of my day is out of my control. I’m pulled in different directions between chores I have to do, projects I need to complete, volunteer work, or the things I really want to do—play my ukulele, read a good book, watch a movie, or spend time with family.

I’m such a late night person that it’s hard to drag myself out of bed in the mornings. It seems that late night is “my time” to relax and reflect. When I go to bed, I like to read and, hopefully, sleep through the night.

I see more sunsets than sunrises, and that is a disturbing thought. Sunsets represent endings, and sunrises represent beginnings. The rain today is quenching the thirst of the earth. The rainbow is a sign of hope and a promise of better times ahead.

 

Copyright © July 2023 by L.S. Fisher

http://earlyonset.blogspot.com

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