The same hurricane that devastated communities and shattered lives also intensified and recolored the sunset’s palette.

Mother Nature is a supreme artist creating one masterpiece after another. She occasionally throws tantrums, rips the canvasses, discards the brushes, and storms away, huffing and puffing. When enraged, she furiously scowls at human hubris. Once her foul mood blows over, she restarts her oeuvre.

Hurricane Ian laid waste to SW Florida and, for days, soaked the rest of it. However since then the sunsets in the area have been beauteous!

Air molecules scatter and redirect sunlight that is made of colors of varying wavelengths resulting in vibrant sunset colors.

Hurricanes like Ian cause wretched downpours that pressure wash all the fine particulate matter and other pollutants. Free of the competition, air molecules have a field day and quickly scatter different wavelengths.

It so happens that small air molecules are about the size of the wavelength of violet light, and hence scattering is more pronounced for the violets and blues than reds and oranges. Post-storm purer air molecules scatter violet light three to four times more effectively than it does the other colors with longer wavelengths. This phenomenon produces sunsets with prominent purple hues.

These images are from last Friday. The last photo of the series, shown here first, demonstrates the richest purple hues.

It is a beauteous evening, calm and free,
The holy time is quiet as a Nun
Breathless with adoration; the broad sun
Is sinking down in its tranquillity;
The gentleness of heaven broods o’er the Sea.
Wordsworth

POTHOLES IN THE HEAVEN

We can encounter potholes on the ground or in the heavens, left there for us to stumble and lose our way.

اِھدِنا الصِرَاطِ المستَقِیم
Guide us to the right path.

May we have the certitude to intuit our paths in life so that when avoiding the potholes on our chosen path, we may not lose our way. May we have the guidance to cogitate the choices we make and paths we take.

On my way to heaven
Pothole in the sky
Spell your destination
He summoned me to try
Falling for the devil
This boy and his lies
Devilment a level
I know too well to be shy
There's angels in the engine
A factory of light
The wings are made of many wings
To hold us in the sky

Meet me in the dark
Underneath the night
Where words cannot be seen
Leave anyone in flight
And the boldness of my lessons
Was silent and white
The world lives for a moment
And every moment says goodnight
What I draw for you is yesterday
Here's what it looks like
I can only draw from what enters my eyes

Maybe our perception is why cry
Maybe it's perception
I just think we're scared to die
If the world lives for a moment
And every moment says goodbye
Then I'm drawing for you yesterday
Here's what it looked like
I was on my way to heaven
Met a pothole in the sky
Tumbling towards the devil
Was silent and white