sunset soundtrack

The austral autumn nearly did me the trick this evening. Two weeks ago the sun set at 7 pm. I know as one of the highlights of my day is to go down to the seaside and contemplate the sunset. What is the big deal about sunsets, one might ask. A question like that define a person more thoroughly than I ever could. I just say that birds love sunsets, the muslims do their prayer at sunset, people here gather on the cliffs to look at it and as I know, even the monkeys of Upper Nile get together to howl on the riverbanks facing west at dusk.

Sunsets here are a real treat. When the sky is clear, the blue is overwhelming, penetrating, violent. When it is the monsoon season and whimsical winds throw about clouds of various sizes, shapes and textures, the sun's rays and the laws of optics put together a show that beats any home theatre set 6-0 6-0.

But tonight I nearly missed it as we are just about to reach Equinox and days shorten at a remarkable rate. At 6:30 there was hardly any light left.



Going down to the beach I had Pat Metheny's Travels playing in my iPod. Perfect strolling music! The waves were reflecting the still-lit sky in a shade of sheetmetal.
Clouds looked dirty. I sat down on a fence and changed to Remember Shakti 's "Shringar". It is scenery music, not going anywhere special but constantly in movement like the leaves of the trees or the ripples on the lagoon bay. As the flow of the music intensified, the colors went through their sequence. The sun set in the clouds, the light was very gently rose until it faded.
The music ended. I dried my eyes.



I did not miss anything. There was nowhere far away I longed for. All the loves I had were the times they were. All my dreams, my successes and my failures had no meaning whatsoever. I was in the now. The beauty and the harmony emptied everything, all my ambitions, cravings and regrets, of all the emotional significance they might have gathered along the years.
I was in the Now.

"Beauty is only skin deep".
?!

My foot!