4 o'clock sunlight is my favorite. I'm grateful to the sun for slanting through the windows and finding me inside when I long to be outside, for warming the objects around me and reminding me of beauty when the day is at its most shaken and stirred. Much has happened by 4pm. Ebbs and flows of fatigue and energy, triumphs and disappointments. Inevitably I have failed to achieve all I wanted but I have also been gifted unexpected joy. And then the sun slants through the window and finds me and reminds me that that is life: impossible to control or tame to fit an agenda, and full of beauty that warms me at a soul level. It is a reminder to let go. In the morning, when I make my coffee, I pour the hot liquid into the cup first, and then I add a scant two seconds of cream. I never, ever stir. Stirring would ruin the contrast of flavors in my mouth, the contrast of temperatures, and I like contrast. I love contrast. I love shadows. I love the sun shining and illuminating storm clouds from behind.
Beauty happens where there is contrast and change and friction, it occurs where life changes shape it interacts with the world.