Tag Archives: afternoon

Good Afternoon

Afternoons are the moments of the day that determine precisely what type of day it is going to be. Is it an active day where all things are accomplished? Is it a lower essential day where you relax and seek rejuvenation and activity? The day is begun with the hope and idealism of the morning, but the actions taken are in the afternoon and will determine if we follow through or put it off for another day. The afternoon is an important time for all things and people, and we have to learn to use that time of day. Life is like a day. As we move through it, the different stages bring different opportunities for success and other truths for people. My afternoons have always provided adventure and change, which has been the same in life. The afternoon has proven to be the best time of day.

No Need To Nap

From my earliest memories, I didn’t like the idea of taking a nap during the afternoon. It was a decent idea to provide extra rest, but to me, it was a waste of prime action time. During my youth, we lived in a camp on a lake in Maine. It was not fancy, rustic, but it provided me with the world’s most fabulous playground. I just wanted to use it, and sleeping would take away from what I could accomplish.

Some people enjoy that relaxing snooze after midday, which is excellent for them, but it is still when I could accomplish something. A workout could be done, a trail could be walked, thought could be written, or any other thing could be done. The sun is high; the opportunity for all things exists. It is not time to sleep. It is time to do. Go swim, go fishing or adventure to the small island in the middle of the lake. Do it all. There is plenty of time in the afternoon to accomplish whatever you want.

The Wisdom of the Morning

You also have the benefit of learning the lessons of the morning. You can now use each misstep you took or experience you learned earlier in the day to guide your steps to a more successful conclusion. The blind enthusiasm of the morning has turned into a practiced application of knowledge for the afternoon. One realizes that they don’t know everything, and there is an unlimited possibility of growth for all of your dreams. Challenges come, but you have the strength to work with it or around it if necessary.

Because you are wiser, the morning taught you about your enthusiasm and fundamental nature. Still, the afternoon allows you to rid yourself of the misguided ideas of yourself and, more importantly, others. You can take action as yourself without carrying the yoke of imagined expectations of others. You realize that you are free to be you in the afternoon because the day is not going to last forever. Living your life for someone else’s morals and expectations is living in a lie. The wisdom of the morning is only as powerful as the individual who chooses to wield it.

Nothing Lasts Forever

One of the powerful life lessons is that nothing lasts forever. No matter how good, strong, true, or successful you are, the afternoon will eventually end. Like the afternoons of my youth, as the time moved on, the shadows on the shores began to lengthen. At first, just a little, but then they grew longer and longer as the sun moved lower in the sky, and we all knew it was time to go home and end our adventures for that afternoon. We moved our way along the path to home, with a nostalgic excitement of having a great afternoon and knowing that more would come tomorrow.

It was time to move onto the evening of life, where darkness would overtake our playground, and the sounds of night slowly ramped up into our consciousness—the call of the lonely loon unseen on the lake. The constant peeping of a million frogs just beginning their adventure. The chorus of the night brought a time to reflect on the day’s accomplishments. There was never a moment then that I had a second of regret about the time I spent.

Sleep

It comes to us all at the end of the day, and if you did what you could that day, sleep would come quickly to you. It is a natural part of the day to move from one section to another, and just like the day, life shifts. In the end, recalling our day, we drift off into a peaceful slumber, knowing that in our afternoons, we took advantage of the sun,  and made the most of our playground, and enjoyed the adventures that came our way.

New things enter our lives and teach us many things, but that is not the time to change anything. It is time to put it away and find the rest you have earned. But always recall with fondness the light of the afternoon and the power of potential that existed there for you—waiting merely to be called. Call.

“The late afternoon sunlight, warm as oil, sweet as childhood”-Stephen King

“Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me, those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language”-Saul Bellow

“Thoroughly unprepared, we take the step into the afternoon of life. Worse still, we take this step with the false presupposition that our truths and our ideals will serve us as hitherto. But we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life’s morning, for what was great in the morning will be little at evening and what in the morning was true, at evening will have become a lie.” -Carl Jung

 

Have a Day

 

The time after sunset and before dark, the Gloaming!
The time after sunset and before dark, the Gloaming!

There is a time between the light and dark of day, where if you look closely where all things appear to be possible. It is the location in life where the ghosts of daily accomplishments and future possibilities meet.

Did the light of day provide something worthwhile to contemplate? Or were the seeds planted that are going to flourish into the bountiful harvest of tomorrow?

These thoughts arrive in the gloaming as the day resigns its light and accepts the inevitable cover of the night. An ending of one moment, as we all find the rest, we need to face to possibility and new opportunity the new day will bring. Our spirit guides us through this day.

Morning Dawns

The morning light dancing on the water.
The morning light is dancing on the water.

Just as the case with everyone’s life, each day provides an opportunity for creating whatever we choose.  We are born at dawn, and as life unfolds for however long our day will last, we design, experience, and love those things we create.   The morning is ever hopeful. As light dances on the soft water, so do our dreams and hopes move. We see few limits and move confidently through this time.

Sometimes there are clouds or at least cloudy experiences that darken the sky. Many are just temporary, passing from the sun and memory as quickly as the wind can push them away. Others stay with us like a part of our being throughout our day, an almost permanent black cloud. The morning is an excellent time, full of innocence and possibilities. It can be the most significant part of a person’s day. Yet, the realities of life have not diminished one’s hope and the sight of unlimited potential.

Afternoon Of Realization

Afternoon activity can define your day.
Afternoon activity can define your day.

The morning will only last so long, and the midday and the afternoon follow it. The afternoon is a time of great accomplishment. You have the energy and knowledge built up through the beginning of your day, and now you are putting things learned into practice.  Moving with the experience gained, we march confidently from task to task, applying our knowing purpose to professional and personal experiences.

It is only as the shadows of the afternoon get long that we start to see we might not have known so much after all. Some of our best-laid plans that showed so much promise have crumbled around our heads — threatening to destroy us.  It is like an illusion that existed was suddenly wiped away, leaving something strange in its place. The truth is what is left.  These shadows of the afternoon are disheartening and intimidating, and either you will recognize them as mere shadows of fear and move forward with your plans. Or you are going to hide from them with your head in the sand, remembering the good safe times of morning and dreaming of returning to safety.  It is not possible, but the mind is full of illusions.

The Evening

The lengthening shadows of evening.
The lengthening shadows of evening.

As we move through the evening, there is no longer any fooling ourselves. The day is going to end eventually. It doesn’t matter what you do, where you go, or how you act. The day is going to end permanently.  Dusk is a time for reflection, understanding, and to pass along all the valuable lessons that the day has taught to others.

Some might be fearful their decisions are going to come back to haunt them in the coming darkness. Others are accepting of the inevitability of the end of the day and their part in it.  It is best not to regret the memory of the day because whatever has transpired is still, in its way, fantastic and magical.

There will never be another day like it ever again. Your part in the activities, small or large, has been vital. Events have flowed from them, like drops of water from melted snow collect to create a mighty river.

These rivers allow our choices to weave their way over land and create a mighty ocean. So your part is significant, and the reality of all things would be different if you didn’t play your role in the day.

The Gloaming Comes

The day will end, there is no escaping it. All we can do is enjoy the light we have.
The day will end. There is no escaping it. All we can do is enjoy the light we have.

As you move from the end of the day into the blanket of darkness that is night, there is a final moment of reflection and appreciation.  It is a seemingly magical image in time where there is a glimmer of what the day has wrought — memories of the people and events that colored your life dance together, both thrilling and haunting you simultaneously. As you look into the sky, you see a record of these events, but not written in stone. That is the magic of the gloaming, I think, that the activities you remember are only shadows of reality and maybe playing out differently in some other dimension of time.

It is senseless to fear the gloaming of the day because it is merely a mirror image of your creation.  Let the night come. It is not an ending.  It is only the start of a different time of perceived darkness. As we know, though, the night is not dark. There are starlight and moonlight available to guide you. It is a shadow day, but nothing to be feared. The gloaming of the day is merely the doorway into another world. An inevitable journey that we all are going to take at the end of our day. The light is just on the other side, waiting to greet you and bring you nearly unlimited possibilities.

Get your rest because tomorrow will bring a new tapestry to be woven and a new landscape of possibility.