one of the things i love most about the town we live in (port washington on long island) is that it is on the water. in my experience, many of the towns i find most charming and full of character and culture are in fact, on bodies of water. i'm not exactly sure why, other than that maybe towns like ours are a little off the beaten path - not as convenient to highways and main thoroughfares -- and therefore they draw people that are looking for certain qualities in a town; lots of restaurants and shops, community feeling, attractions and activities. and because the town attracts people like that, that type of town culture and flavor is furthered by its own inhabitants who patronize interesting and local businesses that might not even survive one or two towns over, where people are less town-centric. or something like that.
anyway, mitchell and i decided to implement "thursday night sunsets" this summer, where we go to the town dock and watch the sunset. if schedules don't allow, we do it on friday instead of thursday (like this week), and it's been a really nice thing to know we have each week. it's a little date, a little pause in the middle of a busy week, and something i've been savoring not only the experience of, but the anticipation of as well. i also love the satisfaction of it - when the sun finally goes down, it feels good, like we've seen it through.
it's amazing to see how much the sunsets change in the space of just a few minutes. so i started taking pictures, and am looking forward to seeing (and sharing) how they change as the seasons change. last week, the rain cleared just in time for a beautiful sky that changed from violet and blue to pink and yellow and then again to blues and grays before the rains came again (all these pictures are from
one sunset in about 30 minutes!)
i love the idea that we go even in the rain, and just sit in the car and watch- it's like life that way - you still have to show up, and make the best of things, and find beauty even when it rains. it's so important in my life, i'm learning, to have rituals like that. they are restorative and really feed my soul. there's also a rhythm in the idea of doing something
every day or
every week that i find comforting.
i really relish the idea that we will always do this together - now, in the fall, in a few years, in 20 years. i think about all the conversations we might have on that dock over the next however many years - about work and dreams and fears, about children and parents and friends, and about sorrows and joys we know nothing of at this moment. and i hope and believe that our weekly sunsets together, and other things like it, will contribute to the strength that sees us through sorrows and the wholeness with which we experience life's joys. it reminds me of something my father said at our wedding that i always think about - "when you find that person, it makes the good times twice as good and the bad times half as bad." so comforting and so true. even in the rain.
one of the things i love most about the town we live in (port washington on long island) is that it is on the water. in my experience, many of the towns i find most charming and full of character and culture are in fact, on bodies of water. i'm not exactly sure why, other than that maybe towns like ours are a little off the beaten path - not as convenient to highways and main thoroughfares -- and therefore they draw people that are looking for certain qualities in a town; lots of restaurants and shops, community feeling, attractions and activities. and because the town attracts people like that, that type of town culture and flavor is furthered by its own inhabitants who patronize interesting and local businesses that might not even survive one or two towns over, where people are less town-centric. or something like that.
anyway, mitchell and i decided to implement "thursday night sunsets" this summer, where we go to the town dock and watch the sunset. if schedules don't allow, we do it on friday instead of thursday (like this week), and it's been a really nice thing to know we have each week. it's a little date, a little pause in the middle of a busy week, and something i've been savoring not only the experience of, but the anticipation of as well. i also love the satisfaction of it - when the sun finally goes down, it feels good, like we've seen it through.
it's amazing to see how much the sunsets change in the space of just a few minutes. so i started taking pictures, and am looking forward to seeing (and sharing) how they change as the seasons change. last week, the rain cleared just in time for a beautiful sky that changed from violet and blue to pink and yellow and then again to blues and grays before the rains came again (all these pictures are from one sunset in about 30 minutes!)
i love the idea that we go even in the rain, and just sit in the car and watch- it's like life that way - you still have to show up, and make the best of things, and find beauty even when it rains. it's so important in my life, i'm learning, to have rituals like that. they are restorative and really feed my soul. there's also a rhythm in the idea of doing something every day or every week that i find comforting.
i really relish the idea that we will always do this together - now, in the fall, in a few years, in 20 years. i think about all the conversations we might have on that dock over the next however many years - about work and dreams and fears, about children and parents and friends, and about sorrows and joys we know nothing of at this moment. and i hope and believe that our weekly sunsets together, and other things like it, will contribute to the strength that sees us through sorrows and the wholeness with which we experience life's joys. it reminds me of something my father said at our wedding that i always think about - "when you find that person, it makes the good times twice as good and the bad times half as bad." so comforting and so true. even in the rain.
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1 comment:
This is such a beautiful post. I sat and watched the sun set over the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridge on Saturday and it was just gorgeous. I was thinking how I should do that more often and then I saw this!
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