Sunsets

31 | 31

Prompt: Where is the best place to watch the sunset near you?

Today is day 31 and the final day of the WordPress #Bloganuary challenge.

Westward

Living out west in Arizona from 2018 to 2022, I’ve seen and captured some of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen. After all, it has earned the name -Valley Of The Sun.

I cannot count the sunsets I’ve watched in my lifetime. While working on the ramp at Charlotte Douglas -I spent nearly every evening looking west across 36R and watching our star drop beyond earths rotation.

Hill To Coastal Creeks

I never felt at home while in Arizona, there was something missing.

As the desert sand blew and fell through the hourglass, I started realizing and connecting the missing pieces of what home should be. Home for me is somewhere near the App Uh Latch Uh mountains and shores of the Atlantic.

I missed the humidity, the gray rainy days, the smell of the forest, and the salty coastal breeze. I missed the home that was created in the Carolinas.

The Tides

The tides push and pull with lunar assistance. Feeling much like the bottle used for sending the message -I was being pushed and pulled with no balance beneath me and yet searching for my purpose.

The tides pulled me to America’s Oldest City. The coastal breeze moves through the live oaks littered with Spanish moss articulating their movements almost as if they are speaking directly to me. The breeze unfiltered by the oaks fills the space around me filling my soul. The tides continue to push and pull but I’m now rooted in comparison to the oaks and no longer gasping for breath with the toss of each wave. I’m home!

The Marsh

With the sun rising in the east and out over the Atlantic -my favorite place for sunset is Moultrie Creek. It’s marsh and creates a space that takes me to Delia Owens’ -Where The Crawdads Sing.

Lee Cowen: Do you get lonely out here?
Delia Owens:  I get so lonely sometimes I feel like I can't breathe.  That's lonely.
Lee Cowen:  Do you like a part of that?
Delia Owens:  I do, I do, and I decided to write a book about it. 

If you have followed me for any length of time, you know I listen to some of the saddest music made. One of my favorite tunes is Lonely Aint Easy from American Aquarium. I can feel almost a sigh of relief as Ms. Owens describes loneliness -and how it resonates within her. I highly recommend the read -Where The Crawdads Sing and the movie created from the story.

I’m home when I’m alone with my thoughts, and my camera at Moultrie Creek as the sun goes down. Likewise, I reflect on how it appeared hours earlier without water and storks gathering breakfast. Even then, displaying the tall grass rising from the murky mud -it’s beautiful to see the cycles of life and know that the tide continues to push and pull.

Moultrie Creek is where I shot my first sunset when I moved to the First Coast and will always hold a spot within me.