Before the Sun

Getting out before dawn changes a walk.

You rely on sound more than sight and that is difficult for a species that has lost so much in the race for success. The more we achieve the more we seem to forget.

This morning there was little going on at the cliffs with the only sound being the hushed heartbeat of waves as they brush against the rocks below. Every now and again a larger wave hits and causes more of a cannon than a whimper but this doesn’t last long and hush returns. On the horizon colour appears long before the Sun and you are allowed a feeling of relief knowing that daylight will be hear soon. Your vision improves as the day brightens but you have yet to see the Sun, although life along the cliffs is waking up. Jackdaws begin their familiar call as they bundle through the air, gulls fill the rest of the silence and you realise that the waves seem quieter!

There is something special about a sunrise even though it is an event that has happened every day for the last four and a half billion years or so and will continue to happen for a while yet fingers crossed. Watching the sky as it colours and brightens, being aware that so many people have already seen this morning’s Sun from so many different places on the planet, and yet there are still plenty who are waiting just like me.

As I watched a dawn, that took hours to start and seconds to finish, I was aware of a slate grey Peregrine sitting not too far away watching the same Sun and having her own thoughts, no doubt much more important than mine.