0530 hours
Friday, March 12, 2010

Cynthia, Jessica and I depart the house in total darkness, headed to Albuquerque. I will be speaking at noon to the NM Surveyors conference, then have a busy day of appointments with donors, volunteers and friends as we prepare for the Republican State Pre-Primary Convention tomorrow.

By 6:00 am we are in Lovington and watching the sun peeking up, barely visible against the orange and pinkish eastern horizon. It is my favorite time of day.

In 1970, during Air Force pilot training my favorite flights were the ones where the Preflight inspection was accomplished in darkness with a flashlight. The instructor and I would climb into the cockpit, plug in the g-suit hose, attach the 10,000 safety lanyard on the parachute, hook up the oxygen mask and start the engines. Outside, the sky would be getting light with the approaching sun.

After taxi and engine runup, we would be positioned at the hold line waiting for the magic moment when the sun began to peek up over the horizon. It was a moment of pride in my instructors to be in the runway, brakes locked watching for the first view of the orange flame of the sun to erupt up over the horizon. I would kick in the Afterburner, release brakes and we would go hurtling down the runway. It still is a magic moment of the day for me.

Several years later I experienced the same sort of love for the morning when I would load my crop duster and be started and waiting for the magic of the sunrise to slip myself and the plane loose from gravity and begin the day.

So this morning, even though we are driving, not flying, my heart leaps at the sight of the sunrise, with the hope for the future of this nation and the hope for humanity through the God who has created the sunrise.