MrFodder commented that my photos so far are a bit uninspired, as I've just been taking pictures of things around me, and not really going out of my way to do anything. He makes a good point, so I am going to try a bit harder to get some photos I wouldn't normally look for. Not that every photo will be like that, as there are other things I'd like to be doing, but every now and again, it would be nice. This photo actually took a while, as I had to wait for the sun to start setting.
Today's photo is important for a couple of reasons. I used to spend a lot of time around here as a kid. My dad loves fishing, so quite often, the whole family would hop into the car, and my mum, siblings and I would play on the sand while my dad went fishing. My brother and I joined him a couple of times, but I was put off by having to put the bait on the hook, so I tended not to stay for very long. I think my dad enjoyed the alone time anyway, as I'm pretty sure my introverted nature is inherited from him (if it is genetic).
Now that my dad is retired, I think he'd like to do more fishing, but unfortunately, he never learned to drive, so he has to rely on someone else to take him. Well, technically, he could catch public transport, but nobody wants to smell dead fish on their commute home. To be honest, and I know this is a bit selfish of me, I don't really want to drive him, because I don't want the smell of fish in our car either. That's another childhood memory that I don't spend much time dwelling on.
The other important part of today's photo is the sunset itself. I was talking to a co-worker about love, and the different wants people show / feel love. He asked me for an example of when I felt filled with love and I mentioned a time when MrFodder had a BBQ pork bun left, which is one of his favourite foods. I was looking for something to eat, and he split his pork bun in half and gave it to me.
I directed the question to my co-worker, and he responded that when he sees his wife framed by a sunset reflecting off a building, it's such a beautiful sight and makes him feel filled with love. I responded, "That's really cute." but really, I was thinking, "How could that possibly evoke a feeling of love?"
I still don't understand his point of view, but as I was standing around waiting for the sunset today, I was thinking about all the things that I could be doing right at that moment. I had a batch of ice-cream ready to be mixed, I had this blog post to write, I could be playing Dota 2 or Town of Salem, I could be cooking my lunch for the week. But I stayed, and I waited.
Then I was reminded of my time in Europe with MrFodder. We climbed this huge hill in Nice, and once we got to the top, we had an amazing view of the whole city.
This was only part of the view.
(There have been a lot of double-image posts lately.)
MrFodder was completely mesmerised by the experience, but I remember thinking, "OK, we've made it to the top, taken a couple of photos, what's next?" I didn't even really see the point of taking a photo, because if we wanted a photo of the Nice coastline, we could find one via Google which was probably taken with much better equipment than ours, and from a much better angle.
As I stood there waiting for the sunset, I thought about how it's not really necessary to min-max my life. Sure, I have an ever-growing to-do list, but sometimes it's nice to just be present in the moment and experience something as it's happening, not start to worry about what's next to cross off the list.
Maybe what my co-worker appreciates so much in that moment is not just the beautiful sight of his wife, but also the appreciation of the fact that he managed to find someone that he wants to spend the rest of his life with, and who also wants to spend the rest of their life with him.
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