1. Sunset, TX

 

August 26, 2023

A previous weekend, I spent 24 hours in Sunset, TX. An hour and a half northwest of Fort Worth, Sunset is a small town with a population of 520. This exact location was a campground, a 2 mile drive on a gravel road away from the main road that runs through town. It was the definition of secluded, with no people or civilization in sight for miles besides the people that I had gone with. 

The heat was excruciating, over 100 degrees, the entire time I was there. All grass was dead, breaking apart and crunching beneath my feet. I found reprieve underneath large trees that provided the only semblance of shade. Fluffy white clouds decorated the blue sky, with no promises of rain to come. The small lake lay still, its surface covered in algae. In a time of solitude beneath one of the large trees, I was struck by the silence. The only noise were the sounds of the wind blowing, the buzzing of flies, and the occasional bird. It was peaceful. 

I have often wondered why people moved to the middle of nowhere. Being from a densely populated area myself, I cannot fathom miles and miles of land untouched by and devoid of humans. But as I sat in the blistering heat, gazing across at the still lake, the dead grass and shrubbery, the trees that spotted the fields, the sound of wind blowing through, I think I started to understand why. The silence. The peace that washed over my body. I was calm. Everything was calm. It was an escape from the bustling outside world and the noise in my brain. 

I don't know the next time I'll be back to Sunset, but it stirred in me the need to escape Fort Worth (though I love it) from time to time, to go embrace the silence and peace I often lack, and go find rest and reprieve in the beautiful creation in which we live.