I looked out the window last night and caught the most gorgeous sunset I've seen in a long time. I was reminded of when I used to drive my daughter crazy by making her come look at sunsets. She could be on the phone or studying for an exam but I would make her stop what she was doing and come look at the sky. I hope I didn't ruin sunsets for her for life.
For some reason catching the sunset last night made me think of a phase I went through of blowing bubbles. I still have a big jar of bubbles and different bubble wands in my water heater room so maybe I'll give it a go again. I got a lot of pleasure from the 6 months or so when I was doing that A LOT. It would be a lot less strange if I'd been 6 but I was actually 40 when I went through my recreational bubble blowing phase. My daughter was too old at 12 to be as enamored with bubble blowing as I was so it wasn't something I did with her. I would spend hours out on my deck blowing bubbles although I didn't always blow. I had some of the big wands you sweep around to make enormous bubbles.
I think I started my bubble blowing phase when I was working through a program called the Artist's Way which was geared to getting back to the joy we have as children and to use that in artistic pursuits. I am a good and bad person for those programs. Oh I get into it all right but my problem has never been releasing my childlike side. That side is always too near the surface. My problem is having the patience to develop the craft side and adopt an attention to the details that make such a difference whether it's performing or fine arts.
I've talked before about how it didn't take a melanoma diagnosis for me to stop and smell the flowers since I already did that. I also stopped and ate a few, such as nasturtiums. Maybe one positive aspect I can wrestle out of my cancer diagnosis is to develop patience. In a way I have developed more patience in the past two years than I had developed in the previous 48. I no longer expect any one doctor to find THE answer to the slew of mess I developed physically following my groin lymph node dissection. I spent 10 years writing and performing original music and never crafted an individual song in the way I would have liked to. Who knows, although I have no interest in performing again, maybe I could try my hand at actually crafting a song.
7 comments:
Whenever I see a red sunset like that I think of my father-in-law as he would always say "red sky at night, hot day tomorrow"...may he rest in peace..he was such a gentle, caring man..guess that's where my hubby gets it. Funny you should add these photos today as just yesterday I ws thinking I have got to a photo of a red sunset over the mountains for Carver. I remember just before moving..in the making up our mind stage..we had come out of a restaurant and I looked toward the mountains and saw the most magnificent sunset with the dark brooding mountains..have never seen a sunset quite like that one..but that made my final decision. It wasn't long before we were making a down payment on our house and we were well on our way to this home in NV. I think I have a bottle of bubbles around here somewhere..bought them for the kids..wonder where they are..maybe I should get them out for myself today..good idea..might feel a little silly but what the heck.
Beautiful photos as always. sue
Hi Sue,
I'd love to see the see pictures of your red sunset over the mountains. I envy you your western skies. The horizons always seem so expansive in photographs in the western part of the U.S. (maybe because the are). I love my trees but it's hard to photograph the sunset or sunrise I see at my house because the sun rises and sets through trees. I can get the sky other times of the day since I have a circle of sky with no trees but it doesn't work if I want to capture sunrise or sunset. What I did with these pictures is crop out the part that wasn't blocked by trees but it was so small that even shot at a high resolution, it loses a lot of clarity when cropped like that. Take care, Carver
Carver,
Wow! Beautiful sunset! I've always loved sunsets, too. It's my favorite time of the day.
And the bubble blowing! I've been enjoying that again, too, because my granddaughter finds it to be great fun. Anything to have her smile and giggle.
Stay Strong
King (Kathie)
Stage IV Liver mets
Hi Kathie,
Blowing bubbles with your grandchild sounds like heaven to me.
Take care, Carver
Don't worry, you haven't spoiled me for sunsets. I wish you could've seen the one in Iowa when I was driving here; it was insane (probably because it was in the middle of the cornfields with no towns or lights anywhere nearby). We have pretty impressive ones in IC too, but you know me, always sitting around in my apartment with the blinds closed ;-)
Those pictures are really pretty.
Sunsets are magnificent and so are your pictures. Some things just take the breath away. I am so glad that stopping to take them in wasn't just an artifact in the aftermath of your cancer diagnosis. Perhaps the appreciation of them is a little different...it is for me.
I would say you passed the test of childhood joy with flying colors.
Children have blessedly short attention spans...needing so badly to be off to the next great thing.
: ) Love, K.
Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, 1943
Hi Kim,
It amazes me how many times you have quotes from some of my favorite sources. I absolutely loved the Little Prince. I'll have to look in Judith's bookshelf because I think my copy is still there. It would be fun to read that as an adult. Judith also got the original French one, but I ainta gonna be reading that in this life time.
As ever, Carver
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