There's nothing like the midwestern sky at sunset when the air is thick and the season of thunderstorms has returned.
That we live amidst this majestic communion of earth and sky is a most remarkable thing. Sometimes I am near to overwhelmed by such beauty. It's enough to make you stop and wonder how all the conflict and struggle of the world are possibly animated. This world is so beautiful and abundant... it is just waiting for us to stop, and listen, and breathe.
My gaze inevitably turns skyward. I contemplate the finest brush strokes nature has devised, in the form of such wild and luminous clouds, ever shifting and moving.
I currently live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It's a pretty relaxed city as far as cities go, but as the summer begins to unfold and the car alarms, roaring motorcycles, thumping bass, screaming sirens, and shouting all begin to coalesce into a fierce maelstrom of humanity, I find myself dreaming of life in the countryside... Truly, I dream of the coast... the ocean, where I have always felt at home.
The sky is an ocean, and so we are always on the shore of such unspeakably vast space, that we scarcely notice the immensity.
I grew up in the country. These photos were all taken along my drive back to the city from my parent's place yesterday. I had to stop more than once to just take it all in. I was reluctant to return to the swarming mass of humanity. I think as I get older I'm becoming more sensitive to all the commotion.
The dark towers of industry, refining the viscous pitch of the earth which propels humankind forward in the race to oblivion, or wherever we are headed. Perhaps we are destined for the stars, but I'm certain that the unknown is our only birthright.
I grew up passing by this place, its torchlit towers and peculiar stench are forever etched in my imagination. It's the Pine Bend Refinery of Koch Industries, a heavy presence on the land and a constant reminder of the age we live in.
Maybe I've been chasing the sun my whole life. Maybe we all are.
Highway 52 - the road West and then North back to Minneapolis.
Well, here I sit, in this house in Minneapolis. I've been back here in the land of my birth for 10 years from my world travels. Summer of 2017 is nigh... the Solstice is nearly upon us. What will this summer bring, I cannot say, but it is shaping up to be many things... many profound things indeed.
I want to share with you some more thoughts on the adventures which lie ahead... but in this moment let us just be transfixed by the momentous sunset and the knowledge that we are here in the world, breathing, between earth and sky.
Tomorrow is a new day, maybe I'll see you then.
