Heroes Not Zombies

I don’t know about you but I find that sunsets exert a strong magnetic pull on me. I just can’t resist them.

They capture my attention, draw me outside, inspire me to grab my camera and take a few shots. Or I just walk to the corner of the garden, look west, and bask in their beauty for a while.

I haven’t counted how many spectacular sunsets I’ve seen since moving to the Charente (and I was also SO lucky to be able to see an incredible number of fabulous sunsets around Ben Led in my years of living in a top floor flat near Stirling, Scotland). The number isn’t important. Quantity is irrelevant. It’s the quality of them – the colours, the spread, the depth, the way they change the colour of the entire landscape, and, yes, even the speed with which they change.

Have you ever tried to watch the minute hand on a clock move? It’s not easy! Sure, if there is a second hand, you are immediately aware of its constant motion, but the minute hand? Not so easy! Try watching it for five minutes. Chances are you’ll be well aware that the five minutes have passed but your mind probably went off on a wee jaunt somewhere while waiting for that time to pass, and it really won’t be easy to actually see the minute hand moving.

But stand outside as the sun just touches the western horizon and I bet you’ll find it hard to look away. I don’t find my mind drifting off anywhere as I watch these sunsets. I’m entranced by them. Of course, if its a cloudless sky I can’t (and shouldn’t) look directly at the sun. Even at that time of day it’s too bright. But when there is a little cloud there it’s easy to follow the changing patterns of light as the Sun sinks below the horizon. In fact, it’s often in those first few moments after the entire sun has disappeared below the horizon that the real beauty commences, painting the sky every shade from tobacco to crimson.

Sometimes it looks like it did last night. Just as the Sun is about to disappear it sends an astonishing flare of bright yellow light high up into the sky. It looks like the very air has caught fire! In this particular sunset that flare was concentrated so it looks for a few moments as if there is a secondary source of light in the sky. It looks as if there is a centre to the brightness which is completely detached from the actual Sun. Almost the visual equivalent of ventriloquy…..

In between the Sun itself and this secondary light cast, the edges of the clouds shone brightly. You couldn’t call this a silver lining. It’s a platinum lining.

It is just fabulous.

When I talk about “émerveillement” this is just the kind of thing I mean.

How great to end the day with wonder, delight and amazement.

How great to feel the effects of beauty and joy wash through my being.

How about you? Do sunsets have this effect on you as well? If not, what does?