Sunny joy

Funny elongated shadow while taking in the dunes and the horizon ,photo credit by @Maggiehongkong

The shadow. I first smiled to see how “tall” I grew under the mild sun on a Friday evening here at the brach. I love how the sun extends far beyond into our normal “dark hours” here. I have kept chasing the sun early in the morning for many years only to discover that it can be utterly pleasant after six pm. Sometimes it takes years to reach out some silly simple understanding of our environment. Back in Europe this phenomenon can be even more energizing as the the sun can be with us even after nine pm. It just feel there is never late to start something.

The shadow. I smiled again to see it as a prism this time. Despite the material right in front of me being sand, I have zoomed in to look closer on how the light was hitting the small particles and I loved the reflection over its dunes. I have turned my own shadow into a prism reflecting and transforming the light going in and extending outside of the prism. This photo will not reflect any of this, seriously. Yet, I wanted to never forget this moment.

One lovely way to change or initiate a new habit is to change a pattern. I have changed my pattern of going to the beach on a very early morning at the weekend. I found myself with some unexpected available time on a Friday evening and amazed by the sunny and perfectly dry almost European summer day ,I have quickly moved to catch the “sunset instead”. Little did I know there was a bit until the sunset and I am sure I missed entirely its point. Simply because I chose to become mesmerised and take in all that was just there in front of me.

There was no other distraction. No headsets, no music, no phone really except taking few “records” of this “prism” moment in front of my eyes. Immersing entirely in the space, time and trying to perhaps make a bigger story than it was, towards my defence - completely unintentional. A young mother came with her little daughter and sat next to me, then went to play in the water, slowly encouraging this cute little kid to become familiar and also sit on the gigantic friendly duck with smart handles. The cute kid and I became friendly and she would wave “hello” and smile so openly and sweet when they would come back for a little break. I have no words really also because in this mysterious way of us interpreting everything, I somehow saw my niece Teodora as a baby.The resemblance stunned me. Her olive little round eyes and mine connected effortlessly. Thank you sweet child and mother. One of the miracles of life that I chose to recognize.

I now present you the water and the horizon with no ferries in sight at that time. Dunes of sand and naught waves as far as we could see and want to extend them.

At times the waves would get a boost and invade the sand more than expected.All the kids in the water will then scream with maximum enthusiasm and wait for more and more of these “unexpected giant waves”. Then it would be silence again. Almost that is.The playful kind of harmony.

And this is the very kind of harmony that we dream sometimes to froze in time, to immortalize in our albums of photographs, to mark it deeply in our hearts so we can go back to his personal private vault of JOY.

There is a tremendous joy for me in changing any pattern, any daily routine. There is a tremendous joy for me in looking at something so familiar, a structure, a material and turn in into something else. There is a tremendous joy that I store in some special garden, with fleeting moments where I can open my eyes and observe a new horizon, a new way to either zoom in or out on about anything.

I would like to add for you as well this poem by Donna Ashworth that I came across this week. Its first sentence hooked me in for life. “Joy does not arrive with a fanfare”.This is all that I have been feeling for an eternity. There is no drum roll. On the other side, the impact is far larger than any great events that I partook in. When the joy choses me, I simply feel blessed. I really do not know how else I could interpret ( not translate) my feelings. It is like I am found by joy. Joy reached out for me in that very moment.

Speaking of time and wanting to prolong a meaningful moment,I might leave you here with a bit of a silliness. Besides the magic of the ocean waves, there are other sounds, quite ordinary, that relax me. The sound of a washing machine . An irrelevant fact about me. And a hugely important activity. I found myself on the rooftop, where my “white noise machine” resides only to count the last one minute till the end of the program. The supposedly one minute turned into two and then into five minutes. And then the “white noise machine” would start a cycle again. Deeply engaged with the process on working on its own and behaving as she was pleasing, I kept starting at the turning tumbler inside. It would just not stop. I could only find myself laughing out loud. This is pure joy too. ( An engineer might tell you or me that the electronics might have gone awry due to the scorching heat and I think she/he might be right too.) I might chose to believe that the “white noise machine” has only responded in unreal and unmeasurable time to send me relaxing vibes all day.

Now is time to make you feel the same and spark when the joy choses you. No fanfare.No red carpet. It might involve sand, beach, or a rooftop. Or lunch with a friend. You will know it in your heart as the spark filters in through your own magic prism of perception.

I thank you for listening and hearing me out.