BARNSTABLE – Alone on a windless night at sunset on a spectacular stretch of beach at Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary, the solitude was meditative, as the fading sun painted the sky yellow, orange, blue and purple.
I breathed deeply like I needed it because the view was in an evolving state of breathtaking. It was surreal, and yet it was so real.
Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary is a big piece of land with 2-1/2 miles of trails that I did not have time to explore. It was just before sunset as I arrived so I headed straight to the beach overlooking the entrance to Barnstable Harbor.
That beach had a perfect view of Sandy Neck Light. At sunset the lighthouse glowed, as did the rest of the tiny community of houses out there. To the right, the beach grass glowed as I looked out towards some folks walking on the flats.
The sunset was amazing. The after-show, though, was the real treat.
I kept thinking I was about to leave. And then it got darker and yet somehow brighter. It got better and better, and then better still. I kept looking around. There were those few people walking far away on the flats. And that was it. They probably thought they had the place to themselves. And they did. Just like I did.
As I left, I glanced back one more time and in my best atheist voice I whispered a soft, “Amen” to what I just witnessed. The moon, nearly full, glowed through the clouds. And then I drove off, chasing the fading sunset down Route 6A.
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