The man literally burst forth, panting and shirtless…

He was in his fifties, deeply tanned, wearing only pajama bottoms. And, he was running, zigging and zagging in the sand. Trying desperately to stay upright as he sprinted to catch the object of his desire. From his hand, a camera dangled.

He needed to capture this. He needed to remember it.

He needed proof. It was that stunning.

And, yes I had to agree. It was.

5:58 a.m.  Not a person on the beach but the two of us. I, in deep meditation, he running, panting and clicking to save his life.

In the minutes preceding, the sky had slowly ambled its way from the blue-gray mist that hovered over the waves to a streaked palette of burnt oranges and yellows, deep purple, blue and pink seemed to blossom into mammoth clouded sprites from the ocean.

It was like watching Monet, himself, paint the sunrise.

All the while, the man, possessed, continued to run. He had to be at just the right place, seeming to know there was yet something even more extraordinary just moments away. He had to be there.

Then, it happened. And, I understood.

Through the corner of my eye, a deeper orange glow radiated from the water in a hazy, sphere-like shape. As it grew in the size, the man ran faster. He had to get to the water. specks of orange haze began to dance and glimmer on the waves, surfing their way into the shoreline and breaking apart in the foamy wash.

Finally, the man stopped, his jaw dropped.

There it was.

At the epicenter of the orange haze, where the glow met the water, a radiant speck of light began to emerge, streaming out in all directions. The sky lit up with color.  The shirtless man stood desperately changing camera angles. He needed to prove something so beautiful existed.

And, indeed, it did.

Within minutes, the glowing orb rose inches, then feet above the sea, welcoming with it all that betokens sunrise at the ocean. The mist began to soften, then blow away. The shirtless, once frantic man, now relaxed, his body lit by the same orange glow that, only moments before, rolled and played with the waves.

Pure magic.

And, it’s there for anyone to see, to be. You don’t need a camera. You don’t need proof. You don’t need to run shirtless in the morning.

You just need to sit. To pause long enough to realize it’s there. All the time. Every morning. Every moment.

If we’d only stop to see it.