This morning I awoke before the sun came up. I have much on my mind. Today is Caroline’s birthday. My youngest sister is 49 today. Thank you, God, for blessing me with such a wonderful sister.

There is much sadness in the air…and also so much beauty. Caroline’s husband has entered home hospice after a long, valiant battle with cancer. She, her husband, and their young boys are saying the long goodbye as he lives his last few months. Another friend’s husband will die within the next few hours, if he has not passed. Such bittersweet time filled with remarkable moments of beauty. Hanging over all of this is worldwide grief resulting from the horrific Orlando massacre, with so many young lives cut short. In the midst of it all we hear beautiful stories of the heroic compassion that emerged in the midst of the horror.

Help me, God, to stay in the present, holding the sadness and beauty gently. Help me live well in the present moment. Help me to love well. This is my prayer this day.

The morning sky was waking up. Gorgeous. I snapped a few photos of the vibrant pre-dawn sky just before the sun rose. Little did I know that it was going to accompany a gift from beyond. I welcomed the rising sun, forced to turn away as it got too bright.

After the sun was up for the day, I came inside and called my sister to wish her Happy Birthday. Afterwards I decided that I should send her dawn photo. While scrolling through my pictures on my phone, I discovered a photo of a poem that I captured off of a blackboard on a recent retreat in California. I re-read it again, and thought, Wow- this is good. What is the source? A quick Google online revealed its source. Ha! It is a Sanskrit poem called “Salutation to the Dawn.” What a God-moment!

Perhaps this poem is also a gift for you.

Salutation to the Dawn

Look to this day

for it is life, the very life of life.
In its brief course lie all
the realities and truths of existence
the joy of growth
the splendor of action
the glory of power.

For yesterday is but a memory

and tomorrow is only a vision.
But today well-lived
makes every yesterday a memory of happiness
and every tomorrow a vision of hope.

Look well, therefore, to this day.

Such is the salutation to the ever-new dawn!

-ancient Sanskrit poem attributed to Kalidasa

With much love to you this day,

M