The Message of the Sunset

There’s something about a sunset, isn’t there? It’s more than just the beautiful colors across the horizon and the way the sun dips just behind it all until the edge of the Earth seems to drink it in and swallow it down. No matter where I am in the world, I am fascinated by sunsets. Oh yes, a sunrise is beautiful and signals the beginning of a new day, a new chance, but it doesn’t compare to a sunset.

I’ve been lucky enough to see the sunset from the top of a mountain in the Rockies, over the Arno in Florence, Italy, across the quicksand in Mont St. Michel, France, and from across the Caribbean Sea in the islands and in South America. Whether on a business trip with my husband or backpacking across Europe with my daughter after her high school graduation, each sunset has been spectacular and presented, not the promise, but the possibility of new day.

While the sunrise ensures that those who made it through the night will have the pleasure to welcome a new day, the sunset only fulfills the promise that you lived that day and the ones before it. Is that sad? I think not. While there are many roads you may travel tomorrow and many adventures still ahead, all we really have when we are called home is what we did and how we lived today, and yesterday, and before any of the countless sunsets we witnessed. Every sunset allows us to assess our day and our actions, to bathe in the glory of our current existence, and to relish in the simple things in life. To watch a flaming ball of fire as it seemingly falls into the ocean where it is extinguished amid a palette of blues, purples, and pinks is just a small gift we are given. Savor it every chance you get.

Where will you be at sunset tonight?