Waiting for tomorrow's dawn

I finally gave into temptation and ran outside to photograph the sunset. Nature saved the deepest colour until last.

I'd been resisting for the past hour or so - watching the television as the police closed in on Raoul Moat. It was a surreal broadcast on Sky News. I don't remember so dense coverage of a single manhunt before, and I'm not sure what I think about it, really. I felt like I was intruding, and yet was compelled to watch the presenter as he repeated the same non-news about the situation. Surely it will soon draw to a close.

I like to watch the sun set. I've seen it in many great locations. It's often a moment to savour, and it is one which (although signalling the end of a day) promises a new, fresh dawn soon. Sunset to me is a metaphor for those paradigm shifting events of people's lives: Sometimes good things come to a fulfilment and make way for new, different futures.

As Raoul Moat lies in the grass of Rothbury, I pray for his tomorrow's dawn.

(Waking this morning, it turns out that Raoul Moat took his own life. My prayer still stands, but knowing that today's dawn will for him be elsewhere.)