DAY OR NIGHT

This is my favourite painting – "Impression, Sunrise" by Claude Monet. I don’t know much about art but I do know that I appreciate creative work not for what it is or is intended to be but for what it makes me feel. And this painting makes me feel that delicious melancholy which comes with my favourite time of day.

Sunrise or sunset, the sadness of a final closing blurring with the excitement of a new beginning is a unique sensation. It makes me feel a little incomplete, a little uncertain but is reassuring all the same because it’s a signal to move on. The sun waits for no one and we must rush to catch up with it’s emerging or fading light.

It’s also a moment that always gives me pause. For a brief few seconds, I enjoy a larger perspective where my small concerns and efforts don’t register. I’m so insignificant in the magnificent nature of the Universe that I can only be awed and inspired. Yet, the moment passes and the grind of life returns, where I’m at the centre and must try to achieve my own significance.

What a beautiful contradiction!