~upon getting there before it's over~

It hit me like a "bolt of lightning" as I was making my journey along the mile long path I walk each evening.  I'd just about made it to the corner where my good friend Michael lives when I noticed it.  The sun was going down in the western sky and for the life of me I don't know why but I had this awful sense of urgency in me that I had to take a picture of it before it disappeared forever (well at least for this day) behind the horizon.  I was still a half a mile from my home on 14th Street and if I was going to make it there in time to grab my camera and drive to the best spot to get the photo, then I was going to have to hurry, and hurry fast!  

By the time I hit the front porch steps and checked the Hutch News from today to find out when the actual sunset time would be, I realized I only had about 16 minutes to spare.  So off I went...no clue where I'd actually find it but that didn't matter.  I just started driving west.  I knew that if I could make it to the top of Rayl's Hill, just west of the city, that I'd have a decent chance of still taking a picture of the sun setting.  Of course, "Murphy's Law" and "Miller's Uncanny Luck", second cousins twice removed, met up with one another in the form of the slowest traffic on record for the west side of town.  It's weird, you know, to give so much value to the insignificant 60 seconds, the "lowly" minute.  But when you only have 15 of them to begin with and traffic is slowing you down, each one of them is nearly priceless.  

With about 5 minutes to spare, I managed to find the sunset on 4th Street at the top of Rayl's Hill.  I parked next to the monument to President Warren G. Harding, honouring his visit to Hutchinson on June 23, 1923 and with camera in hand, I began to take photos of a beautiful Kansas sunset as that big old orb slipped further into the faraway horizon.  Greetings to you all from my side of the earth~

     The Kansas setting sun just west of Hutchinson on Rayl's Hill~October 8th, 2012

I continued to watch the sun go down, long after I had stopped taking photos of it.  For some strange reason I can remember as a kid looking into those skies filled with puffy clouds, just like this, and feeling that those beautiful, brilliant clouds were where Heaven was.  You know, as an adult, I still feel the same way.  

I'm not all that sure why I just felt compelled beyond belief to capture the sunset tonight.  I most certainly did not set out on this evening's walk to do so.  And if I were honest, and I do TRY to be, I'd have to admit that I know that my "chasing of the sunset" tonight really probably in all actuality stands for something more than that.  And in my mind, I already know that the "something" that it really stands for is something that has weighed heavily upon my mind in the last few days~and that would be the way this life passes us all by so very quickly.  Even though I preach nonstop in this blog and in my visits with family and friends in real life about life's "brevity", I still know that I waste precious minutes each day by not doing the things that are the most important to me in this life.  As hard as I might try, I still fall short more times than not.  Please don't give up on me and if you find yourself in the same "proverbial boat" as I am, then I shall not give up on your either friends.  

I've already crossed off "finding the most beautiful sunrise and sunset in the world" twice from my Miller Bucket List, yet it really doesn't matter.  What I have learned is that every rising, every setting of the sun can be the most beautiful~it all depends on what you are chasing them for.  I keep plodding on, just like you all do every day.  My journey in life, as well as yours, has been filled with unbelievable heartache and pain as well as unimaginable blessings and love.  When the time comes that my life here is finished, be it next week or in 40 years, I just want to leave remembering that I did all that I set out to do.  May the same be for you all my dear friends~as you live each day to the fullest.  Peggy Miller's Bucket List is not so much a list of things to do before I die but rather a wish for life and life full!  

Have a beautiful evening friends and family.  Hasn't this been the greatest of days to be alive in?

I have loved every photo that I've taken with children over the past 35 years of being a teacher, but this one will probably always be among the most special to me.  My last class of ESL students at Avenue A Elementary in the year that I retired from teaching (LOL, yeah like that lasted) in 2010.