Sunrise No. 358 of 2,000+
- Sunrise time: 8:25
- Azimuth: 124° ⇡
- Did the sun rise: Yes
- Was the sun visible: Nope
- Felt like: 20 ºF
- Air Temp: 31 ºF
- Humidity: 91%
- Wind: 17 mph ⇡
- Wind gust: 22 mph
Exposure
- 35mm
- f/9.0
- 0.8 sec
- 50
Seul Choix Lighthouse, Gulliver, MI
83 mile commute
📍 45° 55' 15" N, -85° 54' 38" W
Musings [578 words]
Since leaving Seul Choix Lighthouse and arriving at Rise & Grind Coffee in Manistique, the only thing I’ve been thinking about is comfort.
As I widdle down this year of what I seek, it’s comfort, it all comes back to comfort. For me this is a season filled with lots of discomfort, mostly around gifts, but also around the emphasis of couples and family around Christmas. The idea alone of a Christmas party makes me feel uncomfortable, where everyone shows up with a date. Then the conversation turns to domestic life, children, houses, things that I don’t have.
Ok, I’ve lost my train of thought here… sometime between finding this coffee shop, walking inside, asking where the bathroom was, ordering a large mint mocha, sitting down, and getting on the wifi.
There is a lot of value in putting yourself in uncomfortable situations, and facing those discomforts head on. But I’m tired of discomfort. I seek people and situations where I feel comfortable.
During the Hometown Invasion Tour, I stay with over one hundred households of people I had never met. There was little comfort during that experience, very little. The most comfort I had was when pulling out of the driveway and getting back on the road where I could be in my own space.
That is certainly not to stay I didn’t stay with some remarkbly kind, sweet, welcoming people. And a few made me very comfortable. But there is most definitely a limit of how much comfor you can feel when staying in a new place, with people you had just met, while being overly aware of every little rule about being a good guest. Shoes on or off? Do I need a coaster for this glass? What if I don’t have slippers?
I found great comfort in Lansing and at Traciton, where I had not at my prevoious job. It took some time, but I found my stride and got very comfortlable. It was probably this very thing that lead me to leave Lansing, I had found a plateau. That lead to a move to Marquette where I found myself in a job I found no comfort, where day after day it was walking into a place of dread and discomfort.
Now I’m comfortable during the day at the shop, alone someone on the shore at sunrise, or editing phtoos. I find comfort at The Crib, but not at [REDACTED] where everyone ██ ███████████ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██████. I find comfort at Ore Dock Brewing Company, but not at [REDACTED] where everyone █████ █ █████ ████ ███████████ ████████ ████ ███ █████ █████████ ███████ ███ ████ ███ ███ ███ █████ ████ ███ █████ █████ ████.
Comfort in place, however, is incredibly easy to find in comparrison with comfort in people. As I age, now nearly 50, it seems there are fewer and fewer people who make me feel comfortable. And when it comes to the lonely nights and weekends, I’d like to take a break from the hustle, from the work. And discomfort is work, so it’s not the first thing I want to do when Saturday comes around after a week of (usually) working fairly hard.
Still, I’m certailny not complacent as I seeking comfort daily, but I’m not sure what will happen when comfort sticks around for an uncomfortable amount of time.
Even though the daily musings of this project have become more sparse, they appear to have grown in length.
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