Why I Wake Early

Hello, sun in my face.

Hello, you who make the morning

And spread it over the fields

And into the faces of the tulips

And the nodding morning glories,

And into the windows of, even, the

Miserable and the crotchety-

Best preacher that ever was,

Dear star, that just happens

To be where you are in the universe

To keep us from every-darkness,

To ease us with warm touching

To hold us in the great hands of light-

Good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day

In happiness, in kindness.

Up high in a skyscraper in down town Edmonton, Alberta I face the window while reading Mary’s poem. I too awoke early, which is easy to do here given how early the sun rises this far north. The sun emerges out of my vision, but the rays hit the windows of the office building across the street, and they reflect mightily into my eyes as I write. Sun, do you see my tears of gratitude, which are the tears of so many of us who struggle with the tension of whether to be crotchety or kind? How might we come together to choose kindness? Isn’t this what religion is all about? To address these questions, I am attending a conference on Conservation Biology and will present a paper, “Avian Conservation as Lived Religion.” I speak of how conservation teams go into the field to save and savor the world, and how they experience transcendent meaning making moments amongst them. I speak of how the emerging nature religion guides conservationists into choosing to give themselves over to a better thing as they strive to be kind so that the world may know happiness. I am a preacher who has been gratefully bested by the Sun, life giver, creator of love. Today. This moment. Amen.

What helps you be kind?