30:52 Sunset

Yes, I know. It's not Friday, it's Wednesday.

I got a little caught up in life and forgot to post last week.  

So I'm playing catch up.

I've started running again.  I'm taking it slow...dreading shin splints and sore ankles...but now that I'm pounding the pavement again, I wonder why I stopped.

It is seriously the best therapy I know, the most relaxing way to spend an hour (running=relaxing?!?!), and the best pick-me-up.  It's therapy because it's so quiet. I have my thoughts all to myself and no distractions.  It's a great way to clear the mind.  Relaxing? Again the quiet. And the beauty.  I'm fortunate enough to live right next to our city's urban trail system.  And I live in a beautiful mountain town.  

A few times, I've been out running at sunset.  

Why oh why do I not have my camera with me when I really need it?!?  

I suppose a lot of the beauty is actually being there - breathing in the cool air, feeling healthy and strong, while watching the light bathe everything around you in red, then pink, then gold. 

Mother Nature puts on a magnificent show on our summer monsoon evenings.

I have that picture only in my mind.

But another sunset, experienced while in California a few weeks ago, lingers in my mind too.

30:52 Sunset

Perhaps it was another experience thing...relaxing day at the lake, feeling sunkissed and happy.  And the sun goes down quietly.  It's not spectacular in the way of colors.  It's spectacular in the way of lack of colors.  The light pales and everything seems softer.  The suns' rays lose their intensity and the lake is very quiet.  The water is so still that you want to slip in and be enveloped by the dark, refreshing, coolness of it.

This sunset was still very much a golden hour, but in a softer, more silent and soothing way.

I think that I want a summer beach house on Bass Lake.