“Sunrise, Sunset”
June 23, 2019
This is a June 2019 nostalgia post. June brings the end of school, graduations, weddings, anniversaries, family vacations, and road trips. It is a time of transition or breaks from the day to day. Sunrises and sunsets illustrate transitions from night to day and back again.
Transition in life is well described in the the “Fiddler on the Roof’s” song “Sunrise, Sunset”. You do not have to be Jewish, married, or even a parent, to appreciate the meaning of the song and how it describes life.
Sunrise, Sunset
Songwriters: Jerrold Bock / Sheldon Harnick
Sunrise Sunset lyrics © Bock Ip LLC, Concord Music Publishing LLC
Is this the little girl I carried?
Is this the little boy at play?
I don’t remember growing older
When, did, they?
When did she get to be a beauty?
When did he grow to be so tall?
Wasn’t it yesterday when they, were, small?
Sunrise, sunset, Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze
Sunrise, sunset, Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness and tears
Now is the little boy a bridegroom?
Now is the little girl a bride?
Under the canopy I see them
Side, by, side
Bless the gold ring around her finger
Share the sweet wine and bread per glass
Soon the whole circle will have come, to, pass
Sunrise, sunset, Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly flow the days
Seedlings turn overnight into sunflowers
Blossoming even as we gaze
Sunrise, sunset, Sunrise, sunset
Swiftly fly the years
One season following another
Laden with happiness, and, tears
As my son graduated and my daughter decided to spend the summer working away from home, I am doing my best to let them fly away as they should. In addition, we are fortunate enough to have our parents, one set celebrating 65 years of marriage and the other set 54. They are going through their own transitions, and spending time with them is also very precious. But the key to bridging the generations is to strike a balance in how involved you should be in their lives. It may be more desirable to be involved with your children, but it really is more important to be a part of your parent’s lives as they transition into the sunset years.
Everyone is going through one transition or another. Transitions are a combination of both, sunrises and sunsets. A new school, new job, new spouse, new baby, a new pet, all could be defined as sunrises. The start of a new day or something new. But each one also signals an end of a stage of life without the new person, place, or thing; or a sunset.
The beauty of life is that although change is hard; change is so necessary to keep us moving to our final destination. And it is essential to take all these transitions and see their importance in our growth as people. Not every change is positive, but there is always something to be gained from each experience. Savor the sunset today and look forward to the sunrise tomorrow. (-:
