I’m ashamed to admit it’s been a long time since I just sat and watched a sunset. But this evening that is just what I did. I forced myself to sit still for 30 minutes and watch the sun set over Old Constantinople. It started its descent just above the Sulimaniye Mosque. Twinkling golden ripples on the water, the half-circle of the sun dipped below the pervasive cloud cover of the last few days. Ferries cut lines through the reflection on the water.
As the sun set deeper I saw lights on a container ship far off across Sultanhamet in the Sea of Marmara. Swallows darted in and out of the alleys, turning around buildings like a school of fish.
Sulimaniye’s mosque cast a long shadow upon the water of the Golden Horn, barely perceptible minarets rippled in the water.
When there wasn’t but a sliver of the sun left it seemed to rally, as if it could turn the entire motion of the planet around. I cheered it on.
Rise, rise up old sun, just a little while longer.
But then Istanbul, a city already pink, fuses into a seamless fiery magenta as the sun sets.
A cannon fires in the distance signaling the end of the fast. Let the feast begin.
Wow, that was beautiful.
these posts are Sean-Paul. We all need to find ways to watch the sunset in the midst of the current insanity and your words help as both reminder and taste of beauty.
Like everything else, it is awesome when it is not done too frequently. Believe me, one can get tired even of watching sunsets!
to be able to watch the sunset from my kitchen window. I am always mesmerized by the pink hue of the sky as I watch the earth go to sleep. It never bores me
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” – Martin Luther King Jr.
and like to see the reflections of the boats in the water. Fall, a particularly colorful time of year with deciduous trees wearing golds, reds, oranges, purples, yellows, verdant and kiwi greens looks spectacular against a more subdued, evening setting sun.
The one thing I’ve never seen is the elusive ‘green flash’ which mariners report seeing…perhaps if I keep looking, one day it will appear just before the sun slips into slumber beyond the horizon.
watch the sunset over Puget Sound whenever I take the time to do so, (and when it is not so overcast that sunset is just a different shade of gray), unfortunately not as often as I should. But, I also watch the sunrise over the mountains to the East pretty much every morning, and that is wonderful.
“I beseech you in the bowels of christ think it possible you may be mistaken.”
The Greek word for sunset translates into something like: the sun assumes a royal demeanor. Purple being the Roman/Byzantine imperial color as well as the color the Byzantines saw everytime they sat where Sean-Paul just enjoyed his Constantinopolitan sunset. Enjoy the city. Wish I were there.
I watched the sunset last night. It caught me off guard thru the rear view mirror and I turned the car around and got out to watch. Purple, fuchsia, red, pink, and yellow in the west thrown up against the foothills in the east which turn purplish-green. My heart ache from the beauty. The same kind of ache from seeing the changing colors on trees in Ohio with colors so vibrant your breath catches in your throat.