Rise Up

I arrived first one recent early morning for a motor coach bus to take my work colleagues and me to an out-of-town meeting.  The sky was pitch and the temperature cold.  I was chilled to the bone, my eyes heavy-lidded from arising so early. I desperately tried to warm up and wake up.  As I moved to the big window in the hospital's waiting area to see if the bus was in sight, I looked over to the east and that was when my eyes opened wide and the warmth of what I saw took away any chill I might have been experiencing.  The sunrise was so amazingly beautiful.  The deep red horizon against an inky sky was so magnificent that I alerted all of my colleagues, who came rushing up to the window to catch a glimpse of the sight themselves.  One colleague told me that she has taken many photos of sunrises over the years as she leaves work after the night shift.  Another talented colleague described what she saw, committing it to memory so she could replicate it in one of her paintings.  For a few moments, we were all drawn together, not just as colleagues but as admirers of nature's beauty, a beauty that nearly took our breath away.