P.S. This blog is inspired by watching the sunrise for four days on my trip to the Island of Kauai. The rising sun cleared so many clouds not just in the sky but in my mind too…its magical.
For the first time in my life, I was privileged enough to witness the sunrise off the coast in Kauai, Hawaii, and to be precise, Poipu beach. I woke up very early, trying to adjust to the time difference. It was still very dark, and I went out to sit on the patio breathing the aromatic tropical air and listening to the sound of waves crashing on the shore of the Poipu beach (Poipu in the Hawaiian language means crashing waves). A few minutes later, the sky started to turn a little brighter (picture below), getting me excited and curious to look at the navigation app on my phone and figure out which direction I’m looking at. To my surprise, I was in for a sunrise.
Here it comes! At first, it was just a light bulb shining bright on the water. The sky turned orange near it and had so many different shades overpowering the color of the clouds. The silver lining around them was so vividly visible. I kept looking at the sun and the brightness increased forcing me to move my eyes away. Now, the brightness completely overpowered the darkness. You could still see clouds sprinkled around but their significance was reduced by the sunlight.
As I watched it for four-straight days, certain thoughts struck my mind on how the sunrise relates to our life. We have all heard from our parents that every night is followed by a beautiful morning. However, I think the sunrise teaches us much more than that.
Here are some of the insights I gathered:
Life is cyclical — what goes up must come down and what has been suppressed will bounce back. The entire solar system circles around the sun. We come from the earth, use it, and go back to it. The tiny little amoeba, small insects and worms, millions of them, which we don’t know are fundamental to our lives and when we die, we become food for them. Meaning, bad times will certainly be followed by good times and vice versa. Our actions and mindset will determine how big the circle is.
No one can stop the idea of whose time has come — I thought of this famous quote from Victor Hugo looking at the sunrise. Up until a few minutes ago, it was an unending cosmos where there was no beginning, or end, full of darkness and no idea where to go. The sunrise, synonymous with the idea in the above quote comes at its time and eliminates all doubts, brings clarity of thought, and unending source of energy to perform an action and find your path to achieve your full potential.
Growth is glaring– If you think of the rising sun as synonymous with growth, in the beginning, it is subtle and soothing to the ones around it. Many people will not notice it, unlike me and others looking for this auspicious moment. However, once the sun starts to grow in the sky, it is difficult to keep staring at it. Even the clouds, which were overpowering once have a silver lining and are lit up. Similarly, when you start your path to achieve your full potential, the naysayers have difficulty looking into your eyes, and the brightness of your achievements pushes them to look elsewhere.
Also, the quest to achieve your potential is infectious. Like the sun, which fills joy and energy into everyone, when your growth inspires people along the way to do more, think, and act differently to make a difference. I also believe it’s all about pulling everyone along. I tell my wife often; it doesn’t matter how successful we are if we do not have people whom we love to celebrate with us.
Be humble — No one better than the sun teaches us to be polite, kind, and respectful. Sun is the single source of life on and below the earth. It provides energy to all living things, but is polite to the clouds (doubts, lack of clarity, rough phases in life), respects the night for its importance, and gives a message of courage that if used in the right way, the energy could be used to overcome the challenges. Similarly, we shouldn’t take defeat to our hearts. It is just a lesson, not a declaration.
Life is an infinite game — many believe that we are born and then become entangled with relationships, careers, and money among other things that one defeat means the end of life. A finite game is when there are a limited number of players with a set of rules to play and defined outcomes. However, think of it in a way that life is an infinite game where you are playing your role, and people would join you in play in support or against. Some will leave in between, and some will stay longer.
That is how the sun is. It is always enlightening people somewhere in the universe playing an infinite game where millions of objects including stars, planets, and the moon play role at different times, but the sun doesn’t get knotted with them.
The significance of obstacles is underrated — Everything in the world is relative, and nothing is absolute, except for our existence. We value right because of the wrong and light due to darkness. In this context, night and clouds compared to doubts and obstacles in our life are very important. They are the medium through which we realize our true potential and appreciate the growth we achieve.
That is how life should be. We should be able to dance with the obstacles of life, still inspire people and keep evolving to be what we want to be.
I’m grateful for your time in reading this blog. Let me know your experience and perspective about the subject in the comments section. Please share the blog with your friends if you enjoyed reading it.
