Forever Sunrise

I was flying from Boston to Grand Rapids today via Cleveland.  I’m spending the holidays with my sister and her family.  The traveling wasn’t bad despite the bad weather we had on the east coast this past weekend.  There was an incredibly long line at 4:10 this morning at the Continental counter.  People re-booking flights that had been canceled the day before.  My reservation was set so, once I reached the counter, I was ready to go.

I did witness something I had never seen before.  A sunrise that lasted for over an hour.  It was during the flight from Boston to Cleveland.  As we taxied down the runway at Logan Airport, I noticed that the sky was a brilliant orange in the southeast and the clouds above were  deep purple.  I looked as long as I could because I figured that since we were flying west, I wouldn’t be able to see the rest of the sunrise due to it being behind us.

I was wrong.  Because the sun rises so far south this time of year, I was able to look out my airplane window and to the back and watch a sunrise that just didn’t stop.  It was like time was standing still.  The horizon was deep orange for the whole duration of the flight.  I guess we were flying fast enough that the sun was always at the same level all the way across.  It wasn’t until right before we started to descend through the clouds that I looked back and saw the sun pop up over the horizon.  A brilliant orange ball popping up to greet us before we sank down into the cottony clouds.

It was such a blessing to be able to witness a forever sunrise.  It makes me a little jealous of pilots, flight attendants and others who fly for a living. To be able to witness that on a regular basis would be a huge perk of the job.  A huge blessing of the job.  I hope that they appreciate it as much as I did.