Who doesn’t love a beautiful sunset? I am one who becomes rather ecstatic when I behold one, and I often attempt to capture the glory in my camera. How the light changes as you watch, the threshold feeling, a liminal time, the twilight hour. The blue clouds were but the beginning of the great light show to come.
Who has not been moved to deep feeling in the presence of such glory? Surely the ancients felt the first religious stirrings while observing such sky illumination. Surely modern folk feel the same. I believe sky spectacles like this are the most common source of people’s awe of nature. This celestial beauty and our appreciation of it makes us all kin. It doesn’t matter, really, what our personal belief system is, when looking at the amazing show provided to us by our lovely planet and sustaining sun.
In the long tradition of finding divinity in the sky and clouds, it seems to me that Greek Zeus, or Roman Jove, or Hebrew Jehovah, is here, with his big bushy beard, swimming freestyle through the sunset.
Loving sunsets seems trite, or ordinary, or common. And it is. This summer has seen some dark events in the world. At these times, the best and only thing I can do is to share light.
Just had a similar conversation with Georgia last night, Cari. I’m tired of hearing beauty = frivolity. Beauty is essential. We can’t always change dark events, but we can focus on the light that is darkness’s natural flip side. Nature shows us how to do this.
I did feel a little frivolous writing this, Alice, but after I rambled a bit, I knew why it was important. Nature is an amazing teacher if we will only listen and look.
Such beautiful photos.