If Only I Could Fly
I am a professional sky watcher. It is one of the few times I can be seen just standing still, looking up with a smile on my face. I am like a joyful child when I see a skyscape that is breathtaking and have been this way for as long as I can remember. I was definitely the child that would roll down the grassy hill and once at the bottom stare at the sky, completely enthralled with the beauty of it all. I was also known to lie in a field of dandelions making dandelion chains all the while watching the clouds dance and guessing the shapes as they passed by. As a child of the seventies this may sound familiar, possessing a bohemian sensibility retrospect of that generation. For me, this obsession has withstood the test of time only further cementing my passion for the sky.
Sky watching has an expansive feeling to it. When looking up, one gets a sense of the vastness of our world, this planet and the universe. Nothing puts things in perspective more quickly than a knowing of natural order. We are everything, yet we are nothing. Our energy is a part of all that we see, the spirit is free, unrestricted and boundless. Yet this world, with its limitations, obligations and gravity weighs us done in many ways.
There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul.
~Victor Hugo
As a young girl, I used to dream about flying up to the top of a mountain just to be closer to the sky, the moon, the sun and the stars. It was a feeling of utter weightlessness, a disconnection from the gravity of the ground. I would stretch and stand up on my toes reaching for the sky and in my dream could feel myself touching this other dimension. It was the most peaceful feeling I can recall. As silly as it may sound, I often think about what it would feel like to be a bird, to be able to fly in the wind, above the clouds. I envy that experience, but strangely enough I do not enjoy being in planes. That feels constricted to me.
The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Being up high also acts as a visual representation of a longer journey and a metaphor for overcoming difficulties along the way. Once at the top of a large hill and upon looking down, the sense of accomplishment is palpable. The distance is so massive, so huge that it is difficult not to feel strong and capable given where the journey began below. Maybe this is why people take this to extremes by climbing large mountains. Thankfully, I have a knowing that I do not need to climb the tallest mountain in order to discover the greatest truth, it is with me all along.
I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.
~e.e. cummings
From a spiritual perspective, nature has a way of revealing the interconnectivity of the spirit world to all else. Think Pocahontas and the “Colors of the Wind” song. It is tangible when energies connect. I have been known to cry when hiking and on the same token, laugh. My emotions brew right at the surface and react to my surroundings. Nature can be viewed as a pathway to experiential mysticism, and in my case I have found this to be true. Walking, watching the sky, listening to the waves hit the beach and feeling the breeze on my face are all ways in which I feel spirit. It is the most expansive and loving feeling while at the same time protective and embracing. I find it very difficult to find words that do this experience justice. Maybe that it the whole point. I have no need to put words to this feeling, it just is. Find your form of sky watching. Call upon it when in need of peace, tranquility and most importantly when feeling a disconnect from spirit. Take some time to remember where you stand in relation to all else, it is really quite remarkable.