Such Great Heights

1st Sunrise of 2014 (Pillboxes, Lanikai)

I’m NOT a morning person. No matter what the circumstance I am the girl who wakes up, snoozes her alarm(s), puts her pillow over her head and goes immediately back to sleep. My friends and family can attest to the non-committal morning grunt I usually deliver in greeting, and woe to the unfortunate soul who makes the mistake of waking me up.

My best friend Maureen AKA Mo is my adventure buddy (and by my estimation... a morning person). Day or night she is always ready for a spontaneous journey. She is the first person that I would call if I wanted to visit the center of the earth, pan for gold or stick my flag on the moon. I have been blessed with many friends for many occasions, but I’m pretty sure that none of them are as spontaneous as Mo is.

However, please do not let that fool you... I am NOT spontaneous. The kind way to describe me would be well-organized, well-planned, well-rounded, but the more realistic descriptors include control-freak and anal-retentive. I’m the kind of person who sets aside time and plans to be spontaneous. (And even then, it’s a struggle!)

Recently, I’ve had so much creative juice flowing in-around-through my brain, that I’ve had trouble sleeping.  Last week during a bout of insomnia I texted Mo at midnight to see if she was up for an adventure...

A few hours and 3 cups of coffee later I had written another chapter of my novel and eaten 2^nd dinner at Wailana Coffee House. It was 3:30am. Mo (being the sporty-in-shape-hiking-adventurer that she is) had been trying to get me to go on a hike for weeks, and it seemed that the perfect opportunity had just arrived.

Exhibit A: Mo and Kanani climbing up the Lanikai Pillboxes in the dark at 4:45am

Exhibit B: Kanani sliding down the mountain after slipping on some loose dirt

Exhibit C: After much excitement Mo and Kanani successfully reach the bunker at 6:00am ish and hunker down to watch the sunrise

EPIC REALIZATION: I’ve never really watched a sunrise before. Sure, I’ve seen the sun at 6:30am while stuck in traffic driving to work, but I’ve never actually sat down and watched it creep up over the horizon line. Have you?

This sunrise hike has inspired some serious introspection this week. I’ve decided that I don’t want to be one of those people who go around and tell everyone that I’m trying to make a change in 2014 and then continue to snooze my morning alarm. I feel like I’ve slept straight through the past 5 years. How is it that I have never seen a sunrise? What else am I missing out on?

God has blessed us with so much beauty all around us and I feel like I’ve been missing out on the BIG adventure. I want to WAKE UP! I want to reclaim my child-like faith and enjoy the spontaneity that means trusting in HIM and HIS plan for my life (regardless of how I think or feel).

Please join me in celebrating the fact that each and every morning the sun rises and you and I are still taking a breath! The song “Such Great Heights,” by The Postal Service has a wonderful chorus, [They will see us waving from such great heights "Come down now" they'll say. But everything looks perfect from far away "Come down now" but we'll stay.] I am reminded that when we reach fantastical heights and allow ourselves a moment of spontaneity to stop and appreciate the sunrise there will always be people calling us to come back down. Don’t listen to them. Dear ones, you deserve ever single sunrise God has blessed you with, don't give them up for anything!

Here’s a toast to Mo, to my very first sunrise of 2014, and to all of the adventures in my future and yours!

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“He is as the light of the morning when the sun rises, A morning without clouds, When the tender grass springs out of the earth, Through sunshine after rain.” (2 Samuel 23:4)