“There’s always a sunrise and always a sunset and it’s up to you to choose to be there for it,' said my mother. ‘Put yourself in the way of beauty.’”
—Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
An Opacarophile is defined as a person who loves sunsets. The word is broken down into two parts: 'opacare’ which is Latin for dusk or sunset, and ‘phile’ which is Greek for love.
If I learned anything this past year, is that you don’t have to be vacationing on some exotic island to enjoy a stunning, calming, sunset. It makes your worries melt away. It is a natural mood elevator. It enriches one’s life and gives you a sense of gratitude. It slows downtime and gives you a moment to reflect, and it’s available to you FREE 360 days a year.
Whether you are walking, running, bicycling, and even driving, any person can enjoy a sunset. Here are some sunsets I photographed on the Los Gatos Creek Trails this past week.
The fourth photo was taken by my wife Cecile while we were driving back from Fremont, CA just as the sun was beginning to set.
A Poem by Mary Oliver called The Sun:
"Have you seen anything in your life more wonderful than the sun, every evening, relaxed and easy,
floats toward the horizon and into the clouds or the hills, or the rumpled sea, and is gone—and how it slides again out of the blackness, every morning, on the other side of the world, like a red flower streaming upward in early summer, at its perfect imperial distance—and have you ever felt for anything such wild love—do you think there is anywhere, in any language,
a word billowing enough for the pleasure that fills you, as the sun reaches out as it warms you as you stand there, empty-handed or have you to turned from this world—or have you too gone crazy for power, for things."
