Sunrise

Location: The overpass on Wellington Street

Description: Taken from the overpass looking out over the highway towards the rising sun, trees and fields can be seen with the sun in the middle painting the sky a faint orange.

Story: There was a small creek followed by a tug on her nightgown. "Mom?"

She turned around to see Sally, her five year old daughter holding her teddy and still in her pajamas, looking up at her with a sleepy disposition. "Yes Dear? Why are you up so early?"

Sally pointed to the rocking chair nearby, and her mother obliged by sitting down and taking the girl on her lap. "I couldn't sleep." She paused for a moment, then hugged her mother tightly and started to cry. "Janet said I was ugly yesterday."

Her mother held her and stroked her back, letting her empty out her feelings. After a bit, Sally looked up, surprised that her mother was silent. She smiled at her daughter. "And what do you think? Do you think you're ugly?"

Sally thought for a moment and then shook her head. "No, I don't. Whenever I see myself in the mirror, I like what I see. I like playing dress up and I always look good." She looked up at her mother pleadingly. "But why can't other people see that? Why..." She looked down. "Why do they call me ugly?..."

Her mother hugged her and then pointed to the kitchen window. "Do you see the sunrise?" Sally nodded. "Would you call it beautiful?" Sally nodded again. "Tell me why."

"Well its got all these nice colours, and everything looks so amazing and different from how it normally does, and the dew shines, and the world just looks so... It's like when people open a treasure chest on TV and their face gets bright from all the gold. It's like the world is one big treasure chest and all our faces are covered in light."

Her mother smiled down at her. "That's a wonderful way of putting it. Just think about what you've said though. Most days you don't see the sunrise because you're asleep. That's not a bad thing, that's just how it is. Could the same be true of Janet? Could she just be missing how beautiful you are?"

Sally bit her lip and nodded slowly. "Maybe..."

"One more thing for you to think about: Did you notice that you talked about the sunrise being beautiful, but not the sun?"

Sally shook her head, paused, and then nodded. "Yes, I see that now. The sun makes the sunrise, but we say the sunrise is beautiful. Why is that?"

"Because it's the act of rising that shows the sun's beauty so well. It's in the reds and yellows it paints across the sky, the long shadows it casts, and the streams of light that peak out through the tree tops. It shows the world in a new light."

She smiled down and tapped Sally's nose. "Let your light be happiness, and shine it on everyone you meet. Give us a Sally-rise. Just remember: it's not so much that something is beautiful, but that it creates beauty by what it does."