The Valley Awakens
On October 1, 2020 I left my house at 5am to get to Hawk Mountain before sunrise. I hiked in the dark to the North Lookout - guided by my headlamp and years of hiking this same path. Even with the autumn hawk migration in full swing, I got there before anyone else. That is exactly what I wanted - to be the only one on the North Lookout watching the sun rise on the first day of the next chapter of my life.
After 20 years at MicroStrategy, and 35 years of post college employment, with never more than two weeks off, I retired. I had been thinking about it for a couple years and decided that now was the right time. I had also given a lot of thought to what I would do on that first day - would I relax and sleep in? Nah!! I would do it all! After the sunrise hike at Hawk Mountain, I drove back home and did a 20 mile bike ride. And since there was half a day left, I loaded the kayak on the Jeep and spent 4 hours in the afternoon kayaking on the Batsto River in The Pinelands. After all that, I enjoyed a nice dinner with Marilyn. It was exactly how I envisioned the first day of the rest of my life!
So where is the classic, straight into the sun, starburst sunrise photo you might ask? I have it - and it's a decent image - but I'm not sure I really like it. It looks like every other sunrise photo and no matter how long I stared at it, it didn't seem to have much impact. What a disappointment!
And then I looked more closely at a set of three images I made right after the planned sunrise photo. One of these is shown at the top of this post. They show the valley below Hawk Mountain coming to life in the morning mist. It's humbling to realize this happens every morning, whether I am on the mountain watching it or not. And it will continue happening long after I am gone. I made these almost as an afterthought. And I really liked them - much better than what I had gone to the mountain to photograph. These "afterthought images" were much more impactful than the obvious image - the image I had planned to create. I think I'll keep that in mind as I enjoy my retirement - sometimes the unplanned moments might be better than the grand plans you draw up.
