IN SIGNIFICANCE

I don’t know how it happened really but today’s sunset was great! It didn’t look like it would be up to much, then... angle of the clouds, maybe the sun just burst through a gap at the last minute... suddenly the park was flooded in red and gold.

A kind of last hurrah of the day! Trees painted with light, long shadows across the grass, a warm, hopeful sky beneath the criss-cross vapour trails. It was brilliant.

It’s nice sitting out here on these summer evenings. I feel insignificant and significant all at the same time, in the quiet and the cool of a glorious sunset. I’ve often wondered how it is to be both those things and still be okay with it.

I think I’ve realised that if your goal is to make yourself invisible, sometime soon you’ll have to start questioning your own effectiveness. Do I want to be significant to people? Yes. Do I want others to be more significant in the world than I am? More so! Do I want to replace myself and still feel useful? Of course. But there’s always crossover, when you start wondering how to adapt so that you can get out of the way. These are interesting times.

It’s gone 10pm and it’s still light. Crows call each other and bats flutter in the trees. It would be unthinkable to do this in October - though I do remember sitting out here on fireworks night. I had three jumpers on, a woolly hat and a flask of something, watching the valley, this valley, burst into colour and smoke. The Americans have the right idea - the Fourth of July is just about perfect for standing outside and watching late-night fireworks. Who knows what would have happened to the world if the Declaration of Independence had been drawn up in November?

There’s a lot to be said for picking the seasons. As it is, I’m enjoying this one, out here, catching the fading embers of a hot June day, watching the sun sink happily beneath the trees.

The stars are out too. They look at me and wink through the purple sky. Insignificant I am, in a gigantic universe of possibility. Yet still wholly significant, somehow, to someone.