Touch
the Sky
“Once
you have tasted the taste of sky, you will forever look up.”
Leonardo
de Vinci
Do
you spend much time looking at the sky? I remember as a child watching my
grandpa walk to the edge of his garden and stand for a long time looking up,
scanning the sky. My father always joked about it, saying that his father-in-law’s
head was as empty as that sky. Do you remember lying on your back in the grass
looking up to see what shapes were forming among the clouds? Or the first time
you flew in an airplane above the clouds and looked down on their fluffy
abundance? I remember thinking this must be God’s view of earth when I still
believed in an off-planet God. Remember when the astronauts sent the first
photos of earthrise and we all gasped at its beauty and wonder. Watching the
sky is rather like watching the ocean. It is constantly changing and moving,
and it calms us in the same way as ocean waves rhythmically slapping the sand.
Thirteenth
century Sufi mystic Rumi said, “Only from the heart can you touch the sky.”
Dissertations have been written interpreting this one line of poetry. We know
that on a clear day the sky is blue. This is not because there is a blue tint
to our earth, but because the white light coming through earth’s atmosphere is
scattered. Rayleigh scattering happens when particles of dust and gas in our
atmosphere cause the layers of color in light to scatter. The blue and violet
rays scatter the most, and since our eyes cannot see violet very well, the sky
appears to be blue to us.
The sky
is one of the most beautiful aspects of creation—its nitrogen/oxygen components
essential to life. The very air we breathe as well as the expanse of blue
heaven we gaze upon are created in delicate balance. The atmospheres of most of
the other planets in our solar system are composed of toxic gases
or are too thin to support human life even when composed of oxygen and nitrogen. By some miracle our planet has the perfect combination to support the
life that is here.
If it’s
been a while since you went sky-gazing, give it a try. You’ll be surprised at
how calming it is. You can reach up and touch it, if you like, but only with
your heart.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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