Sometimes you love someone. Sometimes you love the world they show you.

Sunrises and sunsets hold a special place in my heart, and I suppose everyone else's too, because we don't get to see them often, because they're so enchanting, because you forget about everything else when you look at them. But my favorite sky was the one when we sat outside talking about...something. I saw you every day back then, and no stars were visible that night, and I don't remember what we talked about, and nothing is the same, but I still remember the sky.

Did I like you or the sky?

You always had a bag packed. Clothes, medicines, toiletries, and your camera that followed you everywhere. Always ready, not to leave, but to leave and return. You would travel for five hours to see the ocean, just to stand and breathe in the air that is reminiscent of you August some years ago. You would cover all that distance only to bury your toes in the sand. You could have had more but you were happy with just the water gushing, taking with the sand around you. And sometimes you would fall, and sometimes you would laugh. If you would have gone a little further, the ocean would have drowned in you. The calming waves, the salt in the stale air, and the birds singing songs about an unforgettable time. I haven't seen an ocean since, no sand has slipped away since, no birds have chirped since. Now it is just a cacophony. Did I like you or the ocean?

I often think about those days and how I fell in love with the world around me. I might use the word 'love' frivolously, but I did love those times. Those times when I let people become a window to my world, when I became the sand to their water. I took bad pictures of beautiful things and saw wonders in ruins. Back then, I could have had more, but I was happy with just the water gushing, taking with the sand around me. I love those times because they gave me a window of my own, with a view of my choosing. Now, I am happy and I go a little further than the point of comfort. I see wonders and ruins for what they are and I still take bad picture of them.