bluepastelsunset Wow! It has been 2,361 days since I started taking sunrise pictures at Lake Superior.

“Impossible,” some might say. “Incredible that you can get up that early.” Others may find it improbable that anyone would continue doing this day after day. And a few may simply think, “She just wants attention.”

Perhaps there is a little truth in all of those reactions, but very few people understand the real reason I take sunrise pictures: it makes me feel good—every single day.

I go to the lake not only to take pictures, but also to think. And often, my thinking turns into prayer—prayer that stays with me throughout the day. Sometimes it leads me to do something for another person. Sometimes it leads me to daily Mass, whether at 8:00, 9:00, 12:10, 5:15, or 5:30.

I seek solace in my life, although that may be a foreign concept to some. God is always with me and can come into my thoughts at a moment’s notice. Did faith happen to me? Was it given to me? Or was I simply blessed with it? Faith can be difficult to explain to someone who has never thought much about it.

For me, faith was a gift given through baptism and awakened at some point in my life through God’s grace.

In 2020, I gave myself the gift of beginning to photograph the sunrise. In return, Lake Superior has given me a gift every one of those days: beauty, peace, prayer, and a reason to begin again.