A Spiritual Sunset

Today was a lovely sunny and warm day. It feels like a welcome change after the recent cold snap. I got up late and went to the mindfulness course. When I came out of the course I was just going to go to Sainsburys for some dinner ingredients, come home and do my usual evening thing (laptop, tv, dinner, music whatever). As I was cycling I found myself wanting to enjoy the outside and what was left of this lovely day. I diverted from the supermarket and went and sat by the river and had a bit of a late lunch. Then I cycled home and decided I would try and walk to the nearby ‘hill’. It’s really just a small mound where there used to be a castle, but for an area that is primarily flat it is a prime position for seeing the City from a height. The flatness of the whole area gives a special kind of view when you do get to a higher point, as far as you can see is flat in every direction, the massive expanse gives a great feeling of openness.

I quickly popped home to leave the bike and get my iPod. I walked to the bottom of the mound (it really doesn’t deserve to be referred to as a hill!) and had to sit down. The sunset looked good from where I was so I was happy with where I had got to be it for a break in the walk or my final destination. After a bit of a sit, I decided to go for it and attempt the mound. I made it to the top, and at that point I was thinking it deserved to be referred to as a mountain! I was quickly drawn to the sunset, a wide array of colours, orange, yellow and gold against a back drop of blues with spattering of grey whispers of cloud over the top.

I initially sat looking whilst listening to music. I then started to feel that I just wanted to be totally there in the experience and so removed the music and took in the scene as it completely was. Along with the gorgeous view there was the birds singing, a couple sat near to me laughing, car horns hooting in the rush hour, people going in and out of the restaurants and pubs below, a dog barking, the wind rushing by.

I decided it might be nice to try a bit of the mindfulness of breathing meditation practice. I looked over at the sunset, moon and clouds and started to become aware of my breathing. I was aware of the couple sat nearby and what I was most aware of was how I did not feel self-conscious. In the past, if I was sat near to two people laughing I would’ve been distracted by it. I would’ve been wondering if they were laughing at me even. Today, I was not thinking any of those things. I had not become comfortable in their presence by ignoring it, or by overthinking it, I was just aware. I then suddenly felt a kind of connection with them. I suddenly realised they feel the same as I do. They have pain, emotional and physical; we all have a human experience of life on the same planet. Of course we all have our own individual experiences within that, but we have that as a shared basis. Although I have always thought about others and always tried to appreciate others feelings and experiences, I’ve never actually felt it – if that makes sense.

I suddenly felt like everything was all a part of itself, all consumed by this common ground we quite literally walk on.

I looked over at the universities and no longer felt anger or jealousy or just the general sense of divide I usually feel being on the ‘town’ side of the age old ‘town and gown’ issue. I felt a part of it in my own way.

I’ve heard the phrase ‘we are as one’ so many times but never really thought about it much before. Today I really felt like I understood not just the meaning but the feeling of being as one.