Hey YOU!!

Welcome to My Bright Sunsets!

Back home when I needed time or perspective, I would check the sky to see if the sunset was or would be impressive, race up to my bedroom and grab my camera bag, then drive the suburban--totally falling apart--as fast as was possible/safe to the road highest up on the mountain. There, I would pull to the side, climb up on top of the family car, and with my camera in hand, I would sit, snap photos, and simply think. My hopeless romantic side always felt as if I was in a movie. The scene was just always too perfect--everything was so quiet and real. I was rarely dressed up and am positive I found myself there in my pajamas on a few occasions--letting the wind brush strands of my hair across my face, as I just sat in silence looking over the whole city. Though buildings and the night lights are captivating as they appear one by one, it was the sky that I had gotten the front row seats for.

I have this incredible attraction to beautiful sunsets. No matter what I'm doing, that massive canvas that we call the sky, stops me in my tacks, makes me take a deep breath, and admit that yes, life is beautiful and bright. For some reason when I see a sunset I feel like I am seeing the big picture in this crazy thing called life.

Let me take this even further:

What makes a sunset so complex and simple, elegant and dynamic, and breathtaking? If you're thinking that it is the sky itself--that massive space--I will have to disagree with you.
I attribute it to the clouds.
We seem to associate clouds and rain with dreariness, sadness, and I think we could even say "trials." We refer to this "silver lining" that we must look for within these ominous clouds.
So, why is it the clouds that capture the colors, and shape the sky?
What if we looked at it like this:
The sky is like life, it is huge, and all that we have. Just like the sky, life has storms, and other trials. But in life, there has to be opposition--how could we ever know what it is like to be happy, without the experiences that come with heartbreak and pains? We simply couldn't truly enjoy our blessings without trials to help us learn and grow, and come to understand the depth and beauty of our many blessings. Same goes for sunsets. We are blessed with a sunset every single night, but some are breathtakingly complex, while others are more of a simple occurrence. The days when there are no clouds, the colors aren't always as vibrant, and the sky lacks a sense of movement. However, when the clouds capture those colors, stretch themselves across here, or layer themselves over there, all of a sudden you are witnessing a silent orchestra.
Life is a lot like that. Those clouds and trials make us learn to magnify our strengths and by getting through or facing those trials, our colors and spirit grow brighter just like the clouds capturing the colors. No one wishes for trails and heartbreak, however, in the Lord's plan, we don't race up the mountain to look out at an empty sky or life that was neither hard nor wonderful nor rewarding or disappointing. At the end of the day we look back over the pieces of life we have already lived--over the trials that took us further than we ever thought possible, and helped shape us into the people we are now. At the end of the day, we can look out, and see a beautifully orchestrated life, that with those trials, shaped us into beings closer to reaching that potential our Heavenly Father sees in us.

So here is to many more bright sunsets! I hope you will join me often, and always find something interesting, uplifting, or entertaining in my Bright Sunsets.

Love,

Tayler