the view from down here

i'm very into the idea of looking up right now. a few weeks ago, i wrote about my dad's buddhist advice to "look up," meaning to have faith. in addition to that, which i try to do, i've been fixating on looking up in a different way - physically looking directly skyward, and i am consistently amazed at what i see.

it’s an interesting thing to study the sky- it’s a totally different view than the normal horizon-line angle we mostly employ. everything looks bigger and more perfect - the trees, the clouds, the expanse of sky. it must be what babies in strollers see as they lie on their backs and take in the world. i love experiencing that view and breathing deeply as i take it in, taking that moment for just myself.



my favorite is when the clouds gather in thick, billowy masses almost too intense to be real and not digitally enhanced. but they're real. and then the light peeks out from behind, or lines the edges of the clouds in an otherworldly pink or white or yellow glow. it’s seriously breathtaking.

i've been taking pictures of the sky almost everywhere i go, drawing some concerned looks, for sure. but i seriously can't believe how gorgeous it can be, and i can't believe i'm only first discovering this now. i mean, sure, we've all seen our share of sunset pictures with clouds, but this is every night i'm talking about. and all we have to do to see them is look up and watch - in the space of five minutes, the sky changes completely (and that's lots of pictures).

i'm thinking of having large blow-ups printed of two or three of the photos i've taken, probably in sepia as shown below, to hang in our dining room. i love the idea of looking at these each day, and i think the two below have just the right contrast and intensity for large-scale prints. i just love the way they make me feel – almost as much as i love the way the actual sky makes me feel these days, which is at peace and firmly rooted in the sense that the world is a very, very big place. although in uncertain times it can feel like this big world might misplace a few small people like us, this looking up i’ve come to love makes me feel the opposite effect - like the world will take care of us (if we return the favor, of course). it’s a nice feeling.



i guess those buddhists knew what they were talking about when they said "look up."