Sunsets

 

"Every sunset is different and yet each one is so beautiful. Each is full of fantastic colours, from radiant reds, to glorious greens, to peaceful purples to outstanding oranges, to breathtaking yellows." ~Joseph J Mazzella

I love sunsets. This is a picture I took of the sun setting up in Margaretsville, a small village set on the Bay of Fundy, about a 15 minute drive from my mother's house. I took it back in 2002 when I had gone home to visit for a couple of months. I had always been told that the sunset in Margaretsville was particularly beautiful, but had never actually seen it myself. You know how it is when you live in a place for a long time . . . you quite often never stop to see the things that visitors find compelling. It's often not until you move away that you stop taking them for granted and long to see them, and so one night my mother and I drove up to see it in person.  

There were quite a few people there that evening, waiting for the sun to go down. It had been a particularly warm day in the Valley, and so my mother and I were both wearing shorts, having forgotten how very cold it can get up at the shore. She quickly decided that she wasn't going to hang around freezing to death and went back to the car, leaving me on my own. Cold or not, I had decided I was getting a picture, and so I stayed and was rewarded with a photo of particular beauty . . .

You only have a very few seconds to capture it with your camera lens. It is over and done with in the literal twinkling of an eye. I hadn't reckonned however on how very dark it was going to be immediately after the sun had set . . . and so I had a very scary walk back to the car . . . feeling my way over very unfamiliar territory in the dark . . . one very small step at a time. I knew the car was there though . . . and I knew roughly what direction I needed to head towards . . .

Once I hit the gravel of the road I felt a lot safer . . . and I was shortly back at the car, safe and sound. 

 

As I think about that evening as I sit here this morning . . . it suddenly occurs to me how this very incident can be like an allegory for life . . .

We move along in our lives, with all of their ups and downs, trying hard to stick to the path as we go. We can sometimes allow ourselves become distracted from our goals by something which we find to be beautiful or compelling, maybe even dangerous . . . oftimes without any thought for the dangers that might be hidden beneath the surface, or the consequences of our impulses.

Once we are involved . . . it is too late . . . and we have no way out of our situation, except to move through and finish what we have started . . . sometimes with very dire or hurtful consequences . . .

This can at times be very frightening . . . we may feel lost. We may feel like we don't know which direction to follow. We may be tempted to just stay where we are . . . because the thought of moving forward is a lot scarier than the place that we find ourselves in . . . we may feel that there is no way out, or forward . . .

We may feel totally, and irrevocably . . . lost . . .  

  

I can promise you that that is just not true. No matter where you find yourself . . . no matter how lost you may feel . . . no matter how worthless, how low, how unloved, unwanted . . . how separated from where you wanted to be or long to be, there is always a way out . . . there is a gravel path within your reach, and once you grab hold of it . . . it will lead you back to safety, one small and sometimes daunting . . . step at a time.

"However late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines."
~Jeffrey R Holland, The Labourers In The Vineyard

Just my thoughts this morning. I never know where they are going to take me . . . I started off thinking about sunsets . . . and look where I ended up. ☺ 

 

I found these old photos of our Amanda and Maryn this morning when I was looking for my photos of Margaretsville.  Maryn is so young here.  It is hard to believe she is 7 now.  Hardly seems possible.  The years have been flying by . . . 

  

I love this one. I find myself wondering what they looking at that is so amazing and has caught their attention so perfectly.  

Its another beautiful sunny day out there this morning.  They say this lovely weather will continue for at least another two weeks.  I say bring it on!  I will never tire of it. Not ever.

A thought to carry with you . . . 

° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★
 *.˛.The same boiling water that

softens the potato, hardens the egg.

Its about what you are made of,

not the circumstances.  •。★★ 。* 。 

 

In The English Kitchen today  . . .  Green Slaw.  A beautiful melange of greens, textures, flavours.  Yummy!

Happy 4th of July to all my American friends and family.  Enjoy it and stay safe!  Don't forget!

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And I do too!