A Sunset to Thoughtfulness

I'm actually writing this up on the train into work the following morning. It's a rare back blip, albeit only by a few hours, but it's made me realise how diligent I've been about this whole blip endeavour - because I've only ever been late on a couple of occasions. Blipping has become a major focus of each day and I cherish that. It keeps me in touch with the real world through photography and also with this wonderful virtual world of fellow blippers, a community like no other in my experience. Last night, though, I was simply too pooped to blip! I suspect that I haven't been eating enough to replace all the calories that I'd burned up over the weekend.

I met up with Yearofhappy yesterday evening, for a very impromptu blipmeet on the moor to catch a sunset. She's a kindred spirit in wanting to pack as much into every day as possible and I love that kind of energy. She took a beautiful sunset picture of the Cow and Calf here, so I've decided to go with something a little more universal (nothing to do with the fact that your shot was better than mine!). The first real clouds we've seen in at least four days arrived this evening and kind of signaled the end of our second 'summer' of the Spring. I hope we don't have to wait another two months for the next one!

There is something about watching a sunset that invariably puts me into a philosophical frame of mind, and I'm sure I'm not alone in that. It got me thinking last night and that has continued this morning. I've talked before of being in the zone, living in the moment, of trying to achieve a state of mindfulness to the present. Blipping has made me more aware of the importance of that and helped me with the practice of it. But going with the flow like this is a bit like submitting to the will of the Universe. This could be construed, in a positive sense, as following one's Destiny. It could also be construed, in a negative sense, as just aimless drifting. Like most things in life there are always two ways of looking at it.

This essential duality to life, balancing intuition (going with the flow) and reason (setting a course) has always fascinated me. Colin Wilson expressed it rather well when he wrote (and without the reference to hand I paraphrase) that we, as humans, are in the position of a painter working on a giant canvas. While we are painting we are too close to see the bigger picture, but if we stand back to view the whole we can no longer paint.

The key to a fulfilling life is, I believe, achieving a balance of perspective in our painting, and being able to move fluidly between our left and right brain modes of being. I feel like I've been spending too much time nose up against the canvas lately, daubing on paint with loads of enthusiasm but without much clue as to what is actually taking shape. I need to do a little more stepping back and looking at the bigger picture of things. That was quite a sunset last night!