Well, I can hear the birds chirping for the first time, and this is sunrise in the city.
I love being awake for the sunrise, and being able to see it happen.
Maybe not quite coming out on my little phone camera here.
But this change of light: it's such a basic part of our experience in the universe, to
have this day and night cycle.
And to really be there and experience these times of transition, when day becomes night
and then night becomes day: these are some of the most naturally amazing times to be
alive.
So it seems like this is one of the most simple and basic things that we can do to really
be more connected with nature, to be more connected with the real world outside the
human world, is to be active and aware during these times of change between dark and light,
and to simply observe them, just to see that brief time when things are happening so fast.
You look during the day: you have blue sky for many, many hours.
Or maybe clouds: that's a whole other story, watching the weather and the clouds.
But when it comes to the light itself, it's basically light for many, many hours.
And then at night, it's then dark for many, many hours.
But there are these brief times in between when suddenly the sky can be all sorts of
different colours.
The pinks, the reds, purples, all these different shades.
And you can blink and open your eyes again, and it's a slightly different shade.
It really happens quickly.
Suddenly the sky becomes alive with change, instead of, for most of the time, it's this
very stable background.
But now it's suddenly you can see the change happening.
It's almost like it makes the day more meaningful to actually witness the beginning of the day,
where that day began.
It didn't just- it's not just sitting there in the background, like "Oh, there's the day,
just sitting there."
It was actually started.
It was born.
That day was born, just like a life being born.
This day came out of the darkness.
The sun came up.
Or, you can look at it as the earth turning and the sun coming into view.
It was a fun idea from Buckminster Fuller, that he wanted to change some of the vocabulary
to fit new scientific knowledge, so that instead of saying "sunrise" he suggested the term
"sunview", because the sun's not actually rising, but we're just actually kind of falling.
The earth is turning to reveal the sun, so it's sunview, the first time we can see the
sun.
So rather than the sun coming up, you can look at it as it's like opening a window,
sliding open a window.
As the earth turns, slide it open, and now you reveal the sun.
And then instead of "sunset" he suggested the term "sunclipse".
Not quite as natural-sounding and catchy as sunview.
But sunclipse, because rather than setting, the sun going down, instead, the earth is
just turning away, and it's like sliding that window closed, so that we can no longer see
the sun.
So it's fun to think of it that way, but I also don't mind good old sunrise and sunset.
Because yes, the earth is turning, but as far as our experience is concerned, it's relatively,
to us, true and perfectly reasonable to think of the sun going up and down.
But it is fun to imagine this alternative way of thinking, that if you really picture
what it's like to be on this spinning ball, it really is like the sun is just there.
It's not going up and down.
The sun is just there.
It's us that are going around.
We're spinning to alternately reveal and hide the sun.
So really, the sun is always there.
And in fact, what is the night?
The night is nothing but the sun being hidden by the earth.
It's not really going away, it's just being blocked by the earth.
And in fact, it's exactly the same as a shadow.
Just like being in a shadow.
The nighttime is being in the shadow of the earth.
So it's not so much the sun disappearing in some kind of going away, but rather it's kind
of like a sunny day where you're sitting in the shade.
A lot of shade.
Imagine the biggest beach umbrella you can imagine, which would be the earth itself.
And that puts us in a state of shade until we roll around again and reveal the sun again.
But the Sun is always there, and the stars are always there, too.
So we're just spinning around.
So once again, the most simple, basic things that I like to talk about.
But I just really enjoy being here with the sunrise and being here at these simple moments
when we can reveal and we can see what's going on around us in this natural universe that
we're part of.
Just a simple reminder that this is an amazing world that we're in, and it's amazing to have
a chance to experience it.
So I recommend for myself and for everybody, I think, who can do it, that it seems like
life is better when we experience all the sunrises and all the sunsets that we can.