Come walk with me in the peak Autumn beauty of the Northwoods. To say that I love this time of year is an understatement. Most everyone can appreciate the colorful falling leaves---it reveals the 'true self' of a tree when its leaves are no longer producing chlorophyll. Their true colors are revealed, and there is something simple … [Read More...]
The Making of a Sunset
New Year’s Day was cloudy and gray–a typical mid-winter landscape to start the new year. But there were moments throughout the day when the clouds parted and we saw a glimpse of the sun–for a second or two. It was as if the cosmos was shifting into the new year.
It was the movement of the heavy clouds in the southwestern sky that caught my attention at three o’clock in the afternoon. As a strip of pink appeared low in the sky an hour later, I realized I was witnessing the making of a sunset. By four-thirty, the majority of the clouds were gone from the sky, except the long, horizontal band of purple that took the lead role in the sunset production.
The dark purple-blue clouds were outlined in pink and moved at a swift pace to the south.
The setting sun colored the sky beneath the roll of purple clouds in shades of orange, pink, and yellow.
Forty minutes later, the clouds were gone. The sun had set. A smooth gradient of blue to red-orange silhouetted the cedars and oaks.
And a star shone bright in the quiet sky.
This making of a sunset is like making a big decision in our lives. At first we are in the clouds and rather confused. Thoughts are moving in our head, grabbing our attention, then moving on. We see a glimpse of a solution, but then we are clouded with doubt. As time passes, the choices become more clear to us. We may still have a blind spot–a fear, a doubt, or a prejudice that gets in the way. The process has a beauty of its own–colorful, ever-changing, illuminating. Then all of a sudden, we know what we are going to do! The cloudy doubts and fears are gone. We can see clearly. We feel a quiet peace as we gaze at the bright star guiding our life.
Celebrate the Light
Winter is said to be bleak–and in many ways it is–but it gives us a gift that comes only when the sun is low in the southwestern sky and when the leaves are gone from the trees. The gift of beautiful sunsets!
In the months of shortening days until the Winter Solstice and those afterwards that are frigid, yet lengthening, we can look out our picture window any uncloudy evening to see a work of art on the canvas sky.
“Look at that sunset!” has been exclaimed so many times in our household (mostly by me) that my son has rebutted with his own proclamation that “Sunsets are overrated!”
The light and colors of the sunset are reflected in the patch of river water or ice we can see from our house in the leafless months.
The first week of December was brilliant and cold, producing the sunsets above. Then we became engulfed in clouds as the inversion took over our skies. One or two days of fleeting sunlight late this week then gave way to the bank of clouds that rolled in from the west.
For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, tomorrow is the shortest day and the longest night of the year. We are acutely aware of the darkness–even in our modern, lighted world. As our part of the earth is tilted away from the sun, we experience that darkness as winter. Winter may be bleak relative to the growth, color, and abundance of the other seasons, but it also offers us gifts that are unique to this time of year–if we are ready to receive them.
Sunsets of color against the backdrop of snow and ice make us stop for a moment, take a breath, and appreciate that moment of beauty. Anything that touches and feeds our soul cannot be overrated. The darkness of Winter gives us time to turn our thoughts inward. The work of Winter, unlike the physical work of the other seasons, is the work of our emotions and soul. We can accept the darkness inside ourselves, live with it, and learn from it. Then comes that moment, that day in time, when the darkness slowly starts to recede as we reach out and celebrate the Light. Happy Winter Solstice!