What one is always longing for... a sunset so vivid and powerful and luminous that it brings the shoreline witness to her knees, makes her want to dance (or more likely hobble and lurch) along the beach in sheer full-blown delight, sing and shout her thanks to the Great Round for putting on such an astonishing show.
In April and October, the sun goes down in flames over the lake watched by flocks of returning birds and one old hen carrying a camera (me). Sometimes, just sometimes, there is an echo of eternity, a moment of kensho or true seeing out there, a fleeting glimpse into something grand and sacred, timeless and transcendent.
Only a fool would try to paint an April sunset (I'm a fool of course), and even the best of photos seldom captures more than a scrap of the magic in such liminal moments. If these sunsets were potions, they would be heady concoctions - brews rich and sparkling, potent enough to convey wonder and enlightenment and vibrant immortality. An April sunset is fine wine indeed.
6 comments:
It's not just that we can't "capture" a sunrise or a sunset, either in photos or in paintings. It's that we can't hold those moments in our minds. I think it might be nice to be able to "replay" a perfect sunrise or sunset in all its intensity and emotional impact whenever I wanted to. That can't happen, of course. We can't hold onto that kind of emphemera, no matter how hard we try.
May we all have these wonderful moments of the delight of "true seeing" and the "echoes of eternity" singing in our Hearts, which you bring to Life here so well...
I believe that some scientists have discovered that these sunsets create a certain chemistry. Someone told me that the singer, Sting, called these events "lithium sunsets."
I know that as humans, most of us are drawn to these spectacular sunsets. For me, I believe that when I am in places such as the southern California desert or along a body of water, the cells in my body become a part of the landscape.
Hi Cate
I think you captured that beautifully dramatic sunset quite well. It forms such a universal part of our experience it is hard not to be drawn to it.
Guy
I'm sure tears would have been streaming down my face if I had stood under the presence of such a sky! How beautiful!
Every evening a gift--the sun setting in splendour. How lovely
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