I treasure this time of year at the cabin when the sun rises well after I have arisen from bed and sets many hours before I head to sleep. These are the days when, unless there is heavy cloud cover, I get to drink in the beauty of sunrises and sunsets on a daily basis.

Each morning while it is still dark, Lucy wakes me up at 7 am, nudging me gently with her cold, wet nose. I sit for meditation for about an hour and then move to the dining room window with my fruit and mug of hot water. This is a deeply enjoyable part of my day, quietly watching the unique and dynamic spectacle of colors and clouds as the sun slowly rises above the lake. Then Lucy and I head out for our morning walk/ski with the sun still low and golden on the horizon.

We have had a few cougar sightings in the area recently so I prefer to go on our evening walks before the sun sets. We normally leave the cabin by 4 pm and often by the time we get home the sky is just turning gorgeous shades of red, orange, yellow and sometimes purple. It is truly a magnificent sight! Every once in a while the sky looks completely bizarre, like the background of a science fiction novel, and I look at it and think, “If I were to paint this exactly as I am seeing it, no one would believe that it was real!”

During the long days of summer, I rarely see a sunrise or sunset as the sun rises well before I do and sets an hour or more after I go to bed. This helps me treasure the time that I have now each day. The cold, dark days of winter are easy to embrace when there is the daily opportunity and enjoyment of greeting the sun and then later saying good night as it sets for another night.