It is the end of the day of summer solstice. The light of the sun lingers, dawdles as long as it will all year, before setting gently in the northwest sky.

Tomorrow, the path of the earth’s rotation shifts toward winter.

I imagine the sun watching us, we humans. I imagine it sees us all of a piece.

In the sun’s gaze, we are not bound by borders. We are not spun into castes, not made superior by the places of our birth or the piles of objects we own.

The sun sees us in our glorious colors from pale blue-white to richest ebony, in our frantic activities, in our periods of playfulness and rest. It sees us celebrate its warmth, harvest its energy. It watches us as we wander this blue sphere, pursuing our dreams.

We gaze at the sun, the moon, the stars, and we see beauty. We gaze at the trees, each unique, each finding its way toward the sky, and we see beauty.

Why, then, can we not see the beauty in one another?

No human being is illegal. No family seeking a better life is an enemy. No child should be incarcerated. No system should forcibly separate families. No arbitrary border should be more important than our care for one another.

Humans have always wandered, the sun has always watched, and perhaps its lingering light this evening points us toward a shift of our own. Perhaps our path, starting tomorrow, will be different.

Smoke from one of our fires competes with sunset.