Looking Up

There are much more beautiful things to see when we look up...

So this morning...out early...walk with Scout...sunrise...the usual.  Except my eye wasn’t drawn as much to the eastern horizon (although it was a lovely sunrise) as much as it was drawn higher.  As I drove to the lake this morning, I noticed big puffy clouds out to the west and for some reason I thought that to be unusual (maybe it is, maybe it isn’t - I’m on the upswing from Covid so brain processes aren’t 100% right now) and maybe that’s what started me on the rest of the morning.  I just kept marveling at the clouds this morning and those marvels rolled into thinking about places in the Psalms (especially) about looking up and also remembering a poem by Wendell Berry about the same.  So, here’s what I saw and what spoke into my heart and head today in order of how I saw them looking up.

I know for a while again
the health of self-forgetfulness,
looking out at the sky through
a notch in the valley side,
the black woods wintry on
the hills, small clouds at sunset
passing across. And I know
that this is one of the thresholds
between Earth and Heaven,
from which even I may step
forth from my self and be free.¹

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
from where will my help come?
Psalm 121:1

Lift up your eyes on high and see:
Who created these?
Isaiah 40:26

The heavens are telling the glory of God,
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Psalm 19:1

Quick note on these, that dark band in the first one...that was the leading edge of a small burst of gentle cool rain that fell in the middle of the walk.  It felt lovely, it sounded lovely.  It smelled lovely. It was lovely.

To you I lift up my eyes,
O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
Psalm 123:1

But my eyes are turned toward you, O GOD, my Lord;
in you I seek refuge; do not leave me defenseless.
Psalm 141:8

Here’s the beauty of clouds.  Even if you’re not able to get out to a place like this, even if you aren’t a crazy morning person like me, you can look out a window or look up from somewhere outside and see these glimpses and look up.  With so much of our time spent looking down at our devices or trying to avoid eye contact with others as we walk on a street...look up.  There’s a much bigger and more beautiful world all around us when we look up.

GPLJ,
Ed

PS - my improv camera rain cover (unused poop bag) and also Scout enjoying the morning

1. Berry, Wendell. This Day: Collected & New Sabbath Poems (p. 209). Catapult. Kindle Edition.