Sunrise trampolineCOFFEE WITH WARREN, with Warren Harbeck |
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Morley sunsets and sunrise inspire gratitude and hope. Photos: upper left by Angela Kaquitts, lower left by Kenny House-Rain, right by Deanna Two Young Men Sunsets really make the day for many of our coffee companions, if the responses I received to last week’s column are any indication. They’re certainly important to three of our photographically talented Stoney Nakoda Nation readers at Mînî Thnî (Morley). (See accompanying photo-collage.) Angela Kaquitts was heading home recently along Highway 1A when she captured this uplifting sunset mountainscape (upper left). “When I’m feeling down,” she says, “taking a photo of beautiful scenes like this sunset really cheers me up.” Indigenous Hospital Liaison Kenny House-Rain captured this sunset moment from his backyard two weeks ago (lower left). Looking outward in the spirit of his Stoney Nakoda Elders, he commented on a similar photo of his that I ran a couple of years ago: Beautiful sunsets like this, he said, prove Morley is “God’s country.” But the third photo (at right), taken at the west end of Morley by Deanna Two Young Men, really caught me by surprise. And it was a reflection image of a sunrise, instead of a sunset. But what was reflecting the sun’s rays? It didn’t look like a stream or pond, so I asked Deanna what the sun’s rays were bouncing off. And of course, my very choice of words gave away her answer. “The surface the sun is bouncing off is my daughter’s trampoline,” she said. A trampoline sunrise? Wow, I thought to myself, just think of the lessons for life that can be learned here! Here was a trampoline jumping mat that gives joy to all its fans by letting them trample all over it. They bounce high toward the sky and then pound depressively back into the mat. To start a new day with expectations of being trampled on? Well, the trampoline certainly doesn’t retaliate, but blesses its fans with pleasure and good health. It reminds me how we, though not asking to be trampled on, can be like that sunrise trampoline when we are: agents of hope for a beautiful new day, as we reflect the glory beyond and invite all we meet to enjoy the view.
© 2022 Warren Harbeck |