An Eastertide Sunrise

Eastertide Sunrise, Lough Gur
(C) 2018 Eoin Noonan

Resurrection 

......When the cross hits your life, a loneliness, a blindness and a darkness come all around you. Darkness and lostness are the worst parts of suffering. The wonder of the Resurrection is that this darkness was opened out and at the heart of the darkness a secret light was discovered. Each one of us who has come here hasn’t come to this place out of curiosity but we have come because we know the need that is in our lives and we know the frailty that is in our hearts and minds. We are strangers in the world. In our journey through life anything can befall us. It seems to be very difficult for us as humans to learn how to love, to learn how the let the fear and the resentment and the blindness fall away from us and to come into the special joy and peace and freedom of love. No matter how assured or competent we may feel, there is none of us who has not large territories of fear in our hearts, fear of sharing ourselves, of opening ourselves, of entering life. That is why we come to an ancient holy place like this, before the dawn, to let the new tender light of the resurrection touch our helpless fear and transfigure it and open it into courage................... 

.................."On this Easter morning, let us look again at the lives we have been so generously given and let us let fall away the useless baggage that we carry -- old pains, old habits, old ways of seeing and feeling -- and let us have the courage to begin again. Life is very short, and we are no sooner here than it is time to depart again, and we should use to the full the time that we still have.

We don't realize all the good we can do. A kind, encouraging word or helping hand can bring many a person through dark valleys in their lives. We weren't put here to make money or to acquire status or reputation. We were sent here to search for the light of Easter in our hearts, and when we find it we are meant to give it away generously. The dawn that is rising this Easter morning is a gift to our hearts and we are meant to celebrate it and to carry away from this holy, ancient place the gifts of healing and light and the courage of a new beginning."

~ John O'Donohue from his Easter Homily at Corcomroe Abbey 1992. Included in "Walking on the Pastures of Wonder: John O'Donohue in Conversation with John Quinn"

(C) 2018 Eoin Noonan

Sunrise - Becky Littmann (2014)

Have you ever seen the sun rise?

Witnessed with your own two eyes?

Watching exactly how it went?

Not through someone else's photo captured moment

You'll really enjoy it more if you view it live

& you'll appreciate just being alive

I've watched the sun rise countless mornings

It's like my own private showings

Each one completely different in every way 

& the best way to start any day

They're bright & beautiful

Breatakingly blissful

You'll never feel the same once you've experienced it

& so many will never understand the feeling you get

It's hard to explain but I'll do my best

I'd imagine it's like fresh air deepily inhaled into your chest

Your lungs fill up with all the freshness

& you exhale all that causes you stress

Your worries all just disappear

Your mind is calm & clear 

It's a feeling that just forever stays

Until your dying days

Joy & happiness is all you release

It is what brings you inner peace

All you care to do now is enjoy everything

No matter the troubles & obstacles life may bring

A happy soul is all you've got & need

Your heart has compassion & optimism is what you bleed

Sharing your smile with all you pass or whoever you meet

That is your favorite way to say hello & greet

All from experiencing a live sun rise happen

That all may seem impossible to imagine

All that out of just a sun rising?

When it happens to you, it IS quite surprising

Shocking at first, you just can't believe how you feel

& you wonder how can this even be real?

If you allow yourself to let go of your worries & any doubt

Then you make room to clearly feel what it's about

You're allowing yourself to be vulnerable

& that's when you become more relatable

Clearing your clouded mind of opinions from useless chatter

Let's you finally enjoy what most may think or say doesn't really matter

Those are the ones who don't pay a lot of attention

& are afraid to get lost in their imagination

Never will they set a foot out of their "safe" box & risk crossing that thin line

It's OK, it's their loss & that's just fine

They'll just never understand your constant positive attitude

& can't recall a time you were even the slightest bit rude

They will never know how to just live happily

Inside their soul will be dying slowly

Some won't see how beautiful a sun rise really is

It's something no one should ever miss

A sun rise & even a sun set

Are too amazing to just forget!!