Sunset Love | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Sunset Love | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jack Taylor
07/27/15
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Sunset Love

My first glimpse of the sea at sunset caught me with the surprise of a sneeze nano-seconds from a smoking hot kiss. I gasped myself into gibberish as darkening hues dribbled across the waves like the running juice of crushed grapes.

I’d been watching the familiar fiery orb sliding from the cloudy heavens. The shades of oranges, pinks, blues, reds and yellows wouldn’t have worked on my canvas at home but here it was magic for the soul. Then my husband blocked the masterpiece with his hand. “Relax and wait,” he said.

As we rounded the last bend of the Sandy Bay Road, Mike had taken his hand away from over my eyes and squeezed my knee. I jerked my eyelids up like a child getting her dream gift for Christmas. “Hhhaaa.” I couldn’t breathe it in and my mouth hung helplessly open.

We’d driven six hundred and seventy miles for this weekend away just so I could see the sea at sunset. Seeing it on the computer was like trying to see the Grand Canyon in a scrap book. Photos and video memories of friends didn’t even begin to grasp this moment as I drank in the meeting of two worlds at the horizon of sea and sky. “It’s all about the light,” said Mike.

Walking hand in hand with the wind whistling through my hair, the fine sand squeezing up between my toes and the waves pounding and surging high above the house-size boulders inspired my spirit. The squawking, screeching, reeling gulls flirting with the gusts, the fishy, kelpy tang of salty aroma in my nostrils, the soothing appeal of peach and grape and strawberry swirls above, defied imitation.

The first Spanish Galleys plying these waters likely noticed the same drifting haze of a nearby village fire signalling smoking salmon or barbecued deer. A cautious rabbit skittishly hopping along the base of a blackberry bush almost got lost in the shadows of galloping dusk. “It’s more than just the light,” I said.

We dashed into the waves, stripping away our travel rags and dared to do in the dark what light could never welcome. The teeth-chattering chill of the water only heightened passion and desire. Long kisses seem to feel good anywhere.

Cozied up in a woolen blanket, cuddled with the one I love, was a taste of heaven on our first anniversary. In that space between last light and moonrise the stars worked hard to outnumber the grains of sand. Shooting stars and drifting planets weren’t new to a girl from the city suburbs but somehow this was awesome on steroids.

We slept in our sleeping bags on the beach and never once heard a siren, a honking taxi, an angry drunk, or a revving motorcycle. The crashing waves soothed our nerves and wooed us into dreamland. Only the warm glow of the searching dawn prodded our eyelids open.

After coffee and bagels at a drive-through in a town five miles down the road, we explored the knick-knack shops, old houses built on a wharf nestled in a cove and a broken down sawmill converted into a museum and fishing tackle shop.

Other young couples strolled hand in hand and flirted with their looks and touches. I couldn’t help wonder if they had found their own hidden coves and sea passions during the night before.

That weekend was quite a few weekends ago as the calendar pages fly by. Mike and I tried three years ago to retake that trip and to rediscover the passion of that hidden oasis. A dozen other couples and a few families were already picnicking there and drinking in the ethereal light of sunset love.

I still find the odd occasion to stare at the pictures we took and to imagine the pictures we didn’t take. The memories seem to be fading like the light of that first sunset. The love is still strong and we have found other spots for our weekends away.

One thing that deepens is the realization that the Creator of that sunset has been with us every step of the way. He’s been on every weekend, the ones that were sizzling and the ones that were dizzying in their emotional challenges.

The best advice given to me by my older sister was to take a weekend away as much as possible. It has worked wonders for our marriage, for our friendship and for our stress levels. When anyone asks for wisdom I say “go away.”

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