I live in the city all my years. Sunset is not an ordinary sight for me to behold. But I always love the sunset. It does not signal the end of the day but the coming of a new tomorrow.
When we were young, my grandparents and my mother use to bring us to Banatayan Island specifically in Suba, Bantayan to the family house of my grandfather. My mom once told me a simple anecdote about my great grandmother, the mother of my grandfather. My great grandmother was once asked why she had no TV in her home.
When we were young, my grandparents and my mother use to bring us to Banatayan Island specifically in Suba, Bantayan to the family house of my grandfather. My mom once told me a simple anecdote about my great grandmother, the mother of my grandfather. My great grandmother was once asked why she had no TV in her home.
She replied, I don't need a TV. Just look at how beautiful the sunset is and you will never need a television to give you the visual pleasures your heart desire. The vista is more than what a television can give you. In all humility, she pointed at the sunset, a big fireball slowly descending from the sky above. It silhouettes the several islands scattered along the vast sea that is facing the ancestral house. It also provides a beautiful orange ray on the small boats parked by fisher folks as they await the evening to head off to fish another day.
Every time, we stayed in Suba where we numbered around 100 relatives during Holy Week we can never stop to marvel the sunset. New visitors who join us during Holy Week won't hesitate to finish whatever film they brought for the holidays just to get the best shot of the sunset. (There were no digital cameras then in the late 70's.
When I had the chance to stay in Balicasag Island, off Panglao Island in Bohol last Holy Week, I could not stop using my Sony Ericsson K610i. I first took pictures of the hut without anybody inside it. Then I asked my brother to stay put inside the hut as I clicked on the shutter until my hands numb in utter excitement. Then when the sun was at its lowest, I requested my eldest son to sit down with his uncle and pose for me and for the SE K610i I was using.
My son and my brother sat there mincing no words, all they did was face the sunset. But the silence grew so loud that my ears could hardly take it. I wondered where the sound came from. I looked around and all I could see were few people walking on the beach just marveling the sunset.
At first I could not make sense of what I heard. It was like a sonic boom of a passing jet plane, and then it sounded like a rouge wave about to devour the entire island. Only later did I realize that the sound came from my heart and my soul.
Suddenly, calm beset me. I fully understood what the sound was all about. In the stillness of that afternoon, when the sun was setting, I was told that life is not going to be over. That it was just about to begin when the sun rises in the east the day after.
As we watched the sunset, we usually wax melodrama in our heart and soul fearing the coming of December. That April will long be gone and the coldness of the night will induce us into an everlasting slumber.
Fear not, for sunset is the ultimate gesture that there is tomorrow.
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