Taking
in the view
29 February, 2000
There were dolphins in the harbour today. They came in the afternoon, frolicking down the bay in the sun.
I went for a jog tonight, just after 8pm, just on that soft, calm time when dusk is turning into evening. But my calf muscle twinged on me after a few minutes, so I had to stop, and hobble back home.
I was high on a grassy walkway, looking straight out across the harbour, with the hills of Wellington around me, and Cook Strait to the south, at the base of the airport. The sky was blue and pink, turning to black. The streetlights had just come on. There was no one around. It was warm and quiet.
And the dolphins were leaving, slowly swimming up the harbour. I could hear them. "Splash, splash." The sounds carrying across the water to me. Circles in the sea, broken by a flashing body, a fin, a leap and a dive. They were meandering, turning circles and playing as they went.
I stood and watched for about five minutes. Arms folded, standing in my shorts and t-shirt, drinking in the view and the sea and the dolphins.
I walked home with a light heart, and this wonderful feeling of being uplifted by the beauty around me.
It wasn't that I didn't know it was there, it was that I hadn't looked at it for too long.
Sometimes you just gotta stop running and take in the view.