A Sunset Celebration

A couple of miles outside Calama in Chile’s high dessert is a long cliff with a view of two mountain ranges off in the distance. There is nothing there save the view over and across the high dessert and the mountains at the horizon. As evening approaches people begin to gather along the cliffs edge. They come by the hundreds, senior citizens, families with children, young couples holding hands and a mix of tourists and locals and they gather for only one reason; to watch the Sun set.

It is almost an instinctive pull that gathers people together at sunset and it occurs all around the world. From Marine Drive above the beaches in Mumbai, India to Key West, Florida and here in Chile’s high dessert. It is a moment that brings people together to celebrate the end of another day.

Back at the cliffs edge in Chile the last rays of the Sun vanish behind the distant mountains leaving only a glow filling the distant horizon, and wave of applause rolls through the gathered crowd. In that moment hundreds of people share a common and universal sense of mindfulness that arises from just being present in the moment.