I am not a morning person.
So you can imagine my initial un-enthusiasm at deciding to go to the Easter Sunrise Service for church yesterday morning.

Sunrise. Have you ever even heard of such a thing? I just thought the sun was there in the morning, and then went away at night. Who knew it actually rose at a certain time early in the morning????

So very early.........

After a weekend of not much sleep, I did commit to rising very, very early to attend the service held by my church, at a freakishly early hour of the morning. I really wanted to go. I just didn't want 'sunrise' to mean 'before the sun comes up.'

Not only that, apparently 'sunrise' also means you have to be outside to watch the sun actually rise. The concept of staying inside (where it's warm and not wet) and watching the sun rise through the window is lost on these early morning Easter Sunrise Service people......

So very early......and so very cold......

My alarm clock went off, and it was early. And still dark outside. I got up and put on lots of warm clothes, since a cold front had decided to join us just in time for Easter and sunrise. Friday it was warm tanktop weather. Sunday- cold, sweatshirt, coat and gloves weather. Once bundled up, I ventured out into the dark, driving the empty streets to get to the location of where the sun would be rising for us on this fine Easter morn'.

I arrived earlier than I needed to, leaving me mostly alone and sitting in my car in a dark park. But soon fellow church people arrived. We wandered through the trees of the park to a very special sunrise location, and set up camp. Out came blankets, lawn chairs, sleeping bags, a table, and soon enough, coffee. We were camping for Easter sunrise.

In all reality, I had a much better attitude about it than what is portrayed here in my cynical writing tone. I was interested in this concept of Easter Sunrise Service, especially since my young Gen-X-Y-ish church meets in the evenings on Sundays. We're just not early risers- anything before 6:00pm being early. But, we had quite a crowd yesterday. Impressive.

I can't recall ever actually watching a sunrise, and I guess technically I didn't see one yesterday since the rain clouds kept us from actually seeing the sun at all. But it was a pretty cool experience to see things get lighter outside. Usually when I'm outside and it's that dark, I've seen it go from the light of day to the darkness of night. And it stays that way until I'm awake again the next day. I've never experienced things going from darkness to light, and that was a really cool part of the service for me.

In fact, that pretty much was the service for me. Just watching the sky from a blanket in the park. I didn't join in a lot of the singing, and I wasn't particularly listening to the speaking. I never get to lay down for church, so it was nice to just lay there and watch the sky change. Seeing the dark turn into light, that holds a lot of significance. It's kinda what everything is about, when you think about it. You know?

I'm never really excited for holidays anymore, since my sister is no longer with us to celebrate. Family time for holidays is now often sad or awkward efforts to not be sad. But I must say, starting Easter at sunrise with my friends and some of my favorite people in the world, to celebrate the day and an important reminder- that was nice.

I'm not a morning person, and I don't intend to make sunrise a habit.

But I was glad to see the sun come up yesterday. It seemed right.

C.T.