The first inklling I get of sunrise is the shadows or profiles of buildings and trees with a hint of light behind them. Morning has broken. The light becomes a glow and warms the sky with it's color. Soon a tiny speck of brilliant light shines through somewhere and the sky becomes fire at the horizon, warming the morning and lighting the dew on the fields or water. The ocean is my favorite place for sunrise because the sun casts a pyramid of light from one tiny beam across the water just before it rises to show the arc of the ball of fire. Then, the whole sky becomes that dawn color, blues and oranges and yellows and reds all blending into one warm glow. Good Day Sunshine! Good Day Sunshine!! As the bright orange ball rises, I fight to block the blinding light but so wanting to keep the color of that morning for as long as possible. Everything is a more brilliant color now, the sun has removed the blanket of mist that was laid down by the moon to keep the earth safe and clean. I think of all those who bring me joy and those who have left this life but somehow MUST be involved in bringing this glory to me every morning.
While I understand that you do not have time to see the sunrise for this particular lesson...it is imperative that you experience sunrise in all kinds of places. Over a cityscape, over the ocean, in the country, in the mountains, the desert and on an island. I'm sure there are many more but you just have to see it. When I was driving a school bus, I saw sunrise every single morning-in the snow, ice, wind, rain, calm, fog, wind, heat...you name it, I was there and it was the highlight of my day often until I had delivered my last child back home, picked up MY child and stopped to watch the sun set with him.