I was hurrying to beat the sun before it rose over the sea’s horizon and became too bright to photograph.
I failed, but Nature still gave me a spectacular display.
While the land and sea were still largely cloaked in the greys and blacks of the previous night, on either side of the hill known as Nobbys, the sun was proclaiming the day.
Within seconds, that daily wonder had risen far enough to be making its way across the water to be colouring the coast.
How come this is a free show every day? Somebody should tax it…
Maybe this is the compensation we get for the loss of such golden people as Janet Cohen, who could see both dark and sunny sides of life.
Even on less showy starts to a day, when the sunshine really is reluctant to come out from behind the clouds, we can be sure it’s there, and that the colours will return to our landscape.
I doubt the bombarded people of the Middle East would be seeing much more than the grey of the rubble that once was their home – and the red of the blood from people, friends, family.
How do they hold on to the sunny side when it is just a memory?
What side of Nature would be visible in Gaza?
As I walk home, I marvel at the extended free show, at the sunrise reflecting on the glass patio panels of an apartment block.
I vow to hang on to that sunny side of life, despite all the darkness we are seeing spread across the world, as an ignorant bully inflicts his tantrums on so many innocent people.
Here we are safe from bombs, so that in itself has to be seen as part of the sunny side, albeit clouded over. Although far away, we are certainly impacted, as felt by the $3.30 a litre I paid for diesel last time I topped up my little van.
Mere ripples from the bad-tempered stamping feet of the bully…