I was asked to write something about the sunset.

I was getting ready for that task all day long. In fact, I didn’t do any literary exercise like for example: “Ths sun is slowly descending to the horizon, giving a reddish hue to the sky, which is farther shimmering with all shades of orange. As the sun is withdrawing from our sight, it’s leaving behind a colourful streak of light, above which the sky is growing dark, with the sun slowly sinking in the ocean below. In the end, it disappears completely, leaving the sky at the disposal of the night” (not so black, actually, because we’ve had the full moon these days.

I was planning, however, to write about it in front of the house where I’m living at the moment, with my eyes fixed on the sky, and my fingers tapping the keyboard, to be able to catch up with the beauty of the sun setting in the subtropical zone. I wrote “I’m living at the moment”, because I’ve been roaming from place to place for several days – as human being is known to be homo viator. But even such a rolling stone like me needs a home from time to time (at least for the night), though here, under the Tropic of Cancer, you appreciate a piece of roof above your head also during the day – like the trees which you call here “umbrella trees”.

Seeing that the twilight started falling, I made one more phone call (looking for a home for one night in another city) and I was just about to go out of the house. It turned out to be too late. It was already the night. Because this is how it looks here: the day breaks wide awake and ready to live a life of its own – and so does the night.

So I don’t know if I manage to describe the sunset in the following days, because life is moving really fast in here. And I have to rest, because this is my vacation. So I’m quickly going to bed, maybe I’ll manage to catch the sunrise.

Fr Jay

This notion changes in time. First, your vacation used to be so long that it seemed to have no end. Then it got shorter and became the time necessary to earn money for the rest of your vacation, or for your university fees, or to aid the family budget.

Today we have vacation, but we spend our time on making vacation for our children. We go to the seaside, because they need the climate change, or to the mountains, because it’ll make them healthier. Sometimes the place of stay is determined by the family budget – our own garden or weekend trips out of town will do.

Vacation shows the truth about parenthood. It’s entirely directed to children. When they grow up they’ll spend most of their vacation without us, until they become parents themselves and will use their vacation to make vacation for their kids.

But there is also another way of spending vacation, when all of us become equal and stand before the same God, who made us all into His children – it’s the time of summer retreat for parents and their children. It’s been happening for so many years in Wiselka*, in Poland. Both parents and children are looking forward to that time. Is it going to be the time of taking a rest? Surely no, but each child, no matter how old, will be able to come back to their Father – who gave us time to love.

Time is… love. As the time of vacation of our children.

Fr Jay

*Wiselka is a Retreat Center of the Institute of the Holy Family

So the Harbour lived to show the photo of the captain. It was posed, of course, but I was invited to take over the helm on the way back from the other side of the Bear Lake to the marina.

The first part of the water sports schedule for today was to have consisted in taking me out of water on a board (similar to a snowboard). Six attempts failed and that was it. The other part was simpler.  Not to fall from a floating tube, as it is called here. Falling into water was fun, not to mention desperately trying to hold on.

The weather is great, but the sun liked me so much that my skin looks like the sun’s surface and has got similar temperature right now. I’m scared to think of the night ahead. Maybe that’s how the “old man” will peel off quicker from me? I got some aloes just in case, as Polish traditional ways to deal with the problem are not available here. I wonder if there’s any room in this climate for a white man. If so, perhaps only if they’re in a cassock and a wide-brimmed hat.

I’m curious what tomorrow will bring.

Fr Jay