Sunsets Of Mine (A belated Thanksgiving Post)

A few magical days spent at the Grand Wailea on Maui draw to a close, as my wife sitting next to me, captures a particularly beautiful sunset at Wailea Beach on November 25th, 2024, prompting my mind to muse on life, love, and the unity of it all.
It’s our third visit here, and with our children so much older now—two of them adults… one even a parent—we sit together, reminiscing about past visits here and the plentiful blessings of our travels as the waves roll in. Each wave washing ashore, gently wets the sand beneath and briefly mirrors the sun’s reflection in precious fleeting moments. And as each wave recedes, the sun inches closer and closer to the horizon. Tick-tock.

My own life’s sunset might still be decades away, or perhaps awaits me eagerly just around the corner. I wonder how many sunsets I may have captured in my phone’s image collection and a quick search reveals there are 418 of them captured to date since 2016, each one preserving a moment of awe. A wave of gratitude washes over me, sitting here in marital company, blessed to be able to witness this recurring daily spectacle—compliments of Mother Earth and the universe’s wondrous laws of physics.

Does this strike a familiar tone? Perhaps you also wonder and go see how many sunsets you have sitting in your own collection of awe? Whenever the magic of the moment compelled you to press the shutter button, you preserved a precious second of a life well lived—each a memorabilia of the infinite wonder and humans’ proclivity to recognize beauty. How often do you revisit these snapshots? Rarely? Ever? Perhaps not at all.

Your loved ones may one day flip through these glimpses of your presence on planet Earth after your passing while sorting through and settling your estate. Your snapshots tell a beautiful tale of being human; a life captured in sequence, with improving image quality anytime you upgraded your phone.

As these years seem to pass by swifter than ever, my yearning to capture light and color of such fleeting moments has become increasingly frequent as this benevolent life of mine nourishes my soul. One distant day then my children may stumble over these words and discover my sunset collection. They might even recognize themselves in some of these images, their memories perhaps even retracing moments we shared in love. Countless other sunsets, though, vanish into the obscurity of my memory’s forgetfulness of a fading time when neither phones nor cameras were as abundant as nowadays.

In my younger years, prior to this digital abundance, I sometimes captured them with instant cameras. Yet most sunsets I only experienced with unshared attention, calmly witnessing my vantage point spinning out of the sun’s gaze as I descend into darkness. Here in Waimea now, my wife and I share this precious moment as dusk’s glow illuminates her beautiful features with the scent of the sea abound and the warmth of the fading light on our skin.

We are surrounded by like-minded sunset-seekers—individuals, couples, and families all drawn here now to witness this energetic moment. This golden light heralds our golden years soon to arrive. I wonder how many more sunsets will we still be able to share together? Such bittersweet thought is dwarfed by the fiery brilliance of this magical moment as the sun slowly sinks beyond the Pacific’s horizon. Another beautiful day lived. Another perfect hour celebrated. And this particular sunset is now also captured in a 93-second-long video—a sweet slice of stillness preserved.

As I write these lines, I feel love overflowing. Gratitude blooms within me. A quiet yet resounding joy coining this present moment where nothing else matters as I jot down these lines. Worries and sorrows of those gathered here take a step back and surrender to this beautiful scenery. As daylight bows to nighttime, the sun slips away, and the fading sky slowly reveals the countless other suns visible as shimmering stars across the Milky Way.

How magical it truly is that our human souls are able to recognize this daily farewell as a promise: See you on the other side of night! Humans’ ability to precisely predict the exact moment of sunrise evolved over billions of years as life never stopped, enabling this moment for me now, witnessing a spectacular here-and-now with such sensory precision of my eyes taking in these last rays of sunlight, and my ears being caressed by the relentlessly rolling waves of time. Night eventually falls, and for some among us, tonight may mark their final sunset.

As fate plays its hand I may rise to another breaking dawn, and even if I won’t witness the suns ascend out of the waters on the east shores of Maui’s Haleakalā, I will hear the birds’ ecstatic chorus at sunrise, rejoicing when those new rays illuminate the sky once more: It’s back!!! It’s back again!!! For them, the return of light is no foregone conclusion. Each night, I imagine, carries an unease for Earth’s fauna—not quite knowing if night’s darkness may just stay forever…

It is all so incredibly magical, beautiful, and precious. A spectacle that humbles, a loving embrace of a cosmic rhythm chanced by physics. This spinning planet, perfectly placed, grants us such daily luminary play—a stage where we can gather as lucky audience members soaking up nature’s grandeur on display… never sold out… always on-time…

So, marvel. Take snapshots. Let the fading sunlight warm your soul. Every sunset shall remind me and you from here-on-out of this sensorial pleasure of awareness: the gift of being human.

Yours sincerely,

~ Kindred Soul