the sky was on fire

after church in trowbridge, graham picked me up from the reading train station and we headed straight for the highlands of scotland. it was a 9 hour drive: for a girl from the american west, no biggie…for an englishman, a neverending trip to the ends of the earth.

some of the most spectacular sights of my british isles trip were beheld on that drive and they were impossible to capture. i let it all soak in and took some photographs on my heart. driving past the lake district at golden hour was almost more than i could take. so eventually after 15 minutes of insanely gorgeous and resplendent sunset, i demanded from the driver’s seat that graham attempt operating my camera to immortalize the moment. he didn’t do too awesome, but at least i have some type of (pathetically unrepresentative yet physically extant) memorabilia to remember this sunset.

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it was otherworldly. i was ecstatic. i was deliriously happy. folksy hymns were coming through the speakers. warmth for my life and my trip and my god was streaming through my heart. i was yelping with glee to an amused graham. something in the rearview mirror caught my eye. a rainbow! a brilliant, hazy yet crystalline, gleaming stripe of hues. i felt almost dizzy. in a conversation i recently had with my aunt, she described beautiful tender mercies from heaven as “kisses on the cheek from god.” this was a spectacular one.

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the sky was on fire! and so was my spirit – alive and burning.

pure beauty striking the summer sky, awe-filled respect absconding with your heart, a feeling of insignificance at the very heart of the sublime, so fragile and swollen with the majesty of things, trapped, ravished, amazed by the bounty of the world.”
-muriel barbery, the elegance of the hedgehog

Comments

  1. dang. i sure wish i was there for the drive with you. i would have been yeling and whooping and hollering with glee. you rule.

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  2. Wow, this is totally spectacular! Thanks for sharing. Might rival those Bear Lake sunsets! Awesome!

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