Sunrise in Acadia — Tay Duden- Texas Therapist

I’ve been thinking of this moment a lot. People talk about a higher power, something bigger than ourselves, of heaven. Watching this sunrise filled me with a warmth I will never forget. And may have been one of the most natural forms of happiness I’ve ever felt.

I’ve long enjoyed sunrises. There’s something peaceful about the world still being so quiet, and it’s just you with the warmth of coffee and a pastel sky.

On the top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park, the early few who make the drive to the top see the sunrise first in the United States. In the summer of 2016, a time filled with our New England adventures, we spent a weekend in Maine. We’d come from a soccer game in New York City, caught the Amtrak back to Boston, and the next morning loaded up my car and drove north.

I’m not sure I knew it at the time, but looking back fills me with a nostalgia for the youthful adventures, freshly making long distance work and exploring a part of the country that was so new to me, of old tiny apartments and riding the train to work. Of my beloved Amtrak rides.

So on that Saturday, we drove through darkness, and through heavy clouds to the top of the mountain. A storm was blowing through, and we were in the middle of the fog, the wind, and the gray wisps that were clouds. We huddled up in our little cups of chairs on the peak of Cadillac, and sipped our camp brewed coffee, and waited.

The time of sunrise came and went, and we wondered if we’d missed it. If these clouds kept us from seeing the first glow of orange appear across the bay. And while our expectations slipped away with the minutes after sunrise, they were far surpassed as the sun quite literally shown through the rain clouds, and spread out to consume the sky.

I spent time last evening looking through our photos of that morning, and I was overcome as tears filled my eyes and I felt the warmth once again. Something so simple that happens everyday, was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen and felt.

I’m not sure what is reminding me of it now, but as I write this on the balcony, warm cup of coffee in hand, I feel the sun, and see it casting a warm glow over our morning clouds. I would do anything to be back on that mountain right now, feeling consumed with light next to the love of my life. And while we can’t be there right now, I wonder how we can be our own sunrise, in a world with rain clouds.