The lighthouse

When it began, it was as cloudy as they had predicted. But like all other Saturdays on this trip, the clouds parted and in today's case, most unexpectedly. Everyone was out and about. The highway was clogged. I hadn't been to the north of Seattle, to Ballard and Magnolia. Interestingly enough, it was the lighthouse that drew me. Some of the walks and hikes in Discovery park are a nature lover's dream. It was sunny when I started, rainy as I walked along the coast and sunny again when I returned and found a large rainbow floating above the skyline. The coastline has its own weather. But as I walked in the rain, the green fragrance in the air was heady. It invites you to breathe a little more deeply. The place is a macro lover's paradise.

I stood by the beach, swayed this way and that by the wind, pelted by heavy erratic drops of rain, watching the horizon and the sky dissolving in it until all that remained was the sea, and its churning water. There was silence, except for the sound of waves, the calling of gulls as they floated in the air and the occasional horn of the ocean liner. There are songs born in those muted colours, those curtains of approaching rain, the sun occasionally sneaking in through the gaps. Apart from me, a mother and daughter walked the beach. The rain did not stop them, they walked to the edge, wetted their feet and their hands. They threw pebbles into the sea watching as the waves rocked little boats passing by. Even as the rain grew heavier and everyone else started scurrying for shelter, they were in no hurry to leave. And neither was I.