Sunrise highs
Have you ever witnessed the exact moment the dark of night breaks into the light of day?
One of the jobs I had that helped me pay for my college education was delivering newspapers from my car to the doorsteps of nearly 60 New Jersey customers. Seven mornings a week at 4 a.m., I began my route, and in between the toss of a New York Times and a Newark Star Ledger, I was privileged to see the sun rise above the horizon.The red sky brightens as if Mother Nature has turned her electric timer one notch at a time until daybreak had erased the night and completed its mission.As beautiful as sunsets can be, sunrises have always flipped an emotional switch for me. The sun is coming up rather than going down, marking a beginning rather than an end. The dark gives way to light, charging the batteries of the spirit to power each healthy breath through another day of life.Norman Maclean, author of "A River Runs Through It," wrote, "At sunrise, everything is luminous, but not clear. … You can love completely without complete understanding."The sun that rises and crystallizes the waters of a mountain lake frees the soul from all judgment and opens the mind to imagine that anything and everything is possible and no explanation is necessary.It's a shame that most of us miss this extraordinary moment. If our lives were less hectic and we took the time to watch the sunrise, we would come away with more appreciation for the lives we have been given, and we would reprioritize what is most important in order for us to sustain a peaceful existence.According to the website Earthclinic, sun gazing possesses nine health benefits. Also called, "sun eating," the ancients believed that looking at the sun when it rises and when it sets has therapeutic value. Dawn and dusk are the times when the sun is at its lowest ultraviolet index, so danger to exposure is very limited.The website offers a case study, a practice known as HRM phenomenon. Hira Ratan Manek, proprietor of the Solar Healing Center, submitted himself to NASA for energy testing. The subsequent report stated that Manek, who practiced sun gazing for nine months, reduced his need for food because his gazing at the light from the early sun had raised his energy levels.Another interesting finding was that sun gazing proved to be an effective natural source of vitamin D, a healing treatment for melanoma, and Non-Hodgkin lymphoma as well as other cancers.The website suggests the regimen is initially a 10-second look into the sun while standing on bare ground at dawn and at dusk, followed by an increase of 10-second intervals each day. Mental depression will soon subside. Continue to sun gaze daily for nine months and energy levels improve and emotional optimism increases.Long ago, I stopped tossing newspapers at dawn and now I toss worms to catch fish in a mountain lake. Catching fish is a bonus, and although I'm sitting in a boat rather than standing on ground, I gaze at the rising sun while I breathe in the cool, fresh, summer morning air. Participating with nature at this time is an invigorating experience.It's been said that when one approaches his death, he is in the sunset of his life. Clyde Edgerton, author of the novel "Walking Across Egypt," writes these thoughts from his main character, 70-year-old Mattie Rigsbee, who imagines herself not to be in the sunset, but rather in the sunrise of her life."She could stand there taking in the cold morning while the sky was red and time stopped and rested for a minute … she knew that for a minute before sunrise when the sky began to lighten, showing dark early clouds, there was often a pause where nothing moved, not even time, and she was always happy to be in and at that moment … she hoped that when her time came, it would be close to morning and she could wait for that one still moment."Bravo, Ms. Rigsbee! Let's hope we can all be given the gift of that one still moment.Rich Strack can be reached at