Ethereal

I rest on the grass. The tree beside which I sat was the place where, a day prior, I had my closest encounter with a hummingbird. Seeing the hummingbird, I was filled with joy. A bird that sparked my curiousity at the beginning of the pandemic after being featured in an Apple iPad advertisement on the television was in front of me. Its wings moved quickly. The bird hovered, going about its day; a little moment of joy.

I piovted my head, curious about my surroundings. Kids ran past. A family participated in a group activity where they all ran down a hill while one of them recorded the run. They were making memories. The digital document will remind them of that day. These words, as I write, bring me back to that moment. The feeling of joy that was in the air. In that same place, a few moments before the family arrived, a girl stood while her friend took photos. From where they were standing, I would expect the girl to be in the foreground with the city of San Francisco, basking in the light from the beginning of sunset, in the background.

A woman came over to me, asking whether I would take their picture. More memories to document. She and her friends all smiled and huddled together. I pressed the white circle on her phone to take the picture multiple times, eager to ensure they had a good photo on which they could reflect later. Behind me, two people sat and looked out on the city as the sun began to set.

I stood up to walk around, knowing that the sun would set on the other side of the city. It felt like the whole day was leading up to this moment: time where I could watch as nature put on a show and illuminated the sky with new colours. On one side of the hill, an orange was emerging as the sun started to set. On the other side, the sky was normal, turning lavender and pink as time passed. After walking around the hill a few times, taking in the sights of the city -- buildings, the Golden Gate Bridge, trees, the steeple of a church -- I sat back down. I looked away for a second, and when I looked back over the Painted Ladies and the office district I felt like there was a sudden change.

Sunset was here. The sky was turning purple.

I sat surrounded by people. We experienced the sunset together. Ethereal. The breathtaking colours enveloped the city. A moment of peace. I had been watching the city for an hour. I noticed new details; new buildings. Like admiring a captivating work of art. Some of the windows in the Salesforce Tower had an intriguing blue colour. I wondered how that colour emerged. Perhaps the effect is only to be seen when the light hits the building a certain way. I asked myself "how many walls inside the building are blue?"

People chatted around me. A truck from which coffee was vended had closed. Stones were left in front of the wheels. Young people played games in the tennis courts. People sat on benches and enjoyed each other's company. The group of friends whose photo I had taken earlier moved to see a different view of the city from one of the benches.

As if by magic, I noticed that the pink colours were mostly gone from the sky. I am yet to recognise, exactly in the right moment, that these colors have disappeared. I always see beauty in the sky and then, with the blink of an eye, the colours have changed, not to emerge again until another day.

Tagged in San Francisco.