On Christmas Day I found myself taking in a magnificent skyscape atop the Tafton dike that arcs between Lake Wallenpaupack and Route 6 in Hawley, PA. Having spent the afternoon visiting my beloved …
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On Christmas Day I found myself taking in a magnificent skyscape atop the Tafton dike that arcs between Lake Wallenpaupack and Route 6 in Hawley, PA. Having spent the afternoon visiting my beloved mother at a local nursing facility, the bracing winds were a welcome refreshment to the hours spent indoors.
I was quickly “re-minded” of how simply wonderful it is to be able to walk, to lift my eyes and to see the sky and its many transformations, as sunlight or moonlight make their magic and clouds shift shape or fade away like a figment of one’s imagination. Suddenly, I was on a sky high.
Though there is much to be observed on the ground, too often I find myself looking down and failing to remember what a marvel it is to step outside and gaze into the ether, to silently witness the majesty transpiring there and relinquish the burdens that sometimes bind our minds.
Looking up can lead to other visual revelations, as trees become haunting skeletal silhouettes or electrifying strikes of channeled light. Some cradle dreys (leafy nests constructed by squirrels) in their arms, lifting them like offerings to the heavens; some provide perches for our feathered friends; some seem to create portals for stepping through to the other side of something.
In addition, observing clouds and treetops allows us to “see” something we can usually only experience through sound and touch—the movement of the otherwise invisible air.
As the acclaimed writer Wendell Berry asks in his eight-part Sabbath poem of 1994 from “This Day: Collected & New Sabbath Poems” :
“Finally will it not be enough,
after much living, after
much love, after much dying
of those you have loved,
to sit on the porch near sundown
with your eyes simply open,
watching the wind shape the clouds
into the shapes of clouds?”
In the coming year, resolve to get high by looking up a little more. You might be surprised what looms in the skies. May it be enough.
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