Up, Up and Away
For those of you who have gotten to know me through this blog, you may recall my love of the sky. I have written about and posted pictures of the sky quite frequently and have even compared it to the sea, as the silent sea. The sky has such vastness, color and texture but unless you hear thunder, it releases no sound. I also have said although I love gazing at water and in particular the ocean, the sky is accessible to all who look up, whereas the sea is not. But now I will reflect on how I looked up and down in Up, Up and Away.
I recently flew home from New York, my former home, and was once again enamored by the sky. This time my vantage point was thousand of feet above the earth. I was in a plane somewhere in the atmosphere. Well, I now know where I was once I looked at these pictures. On my phone, even though I was in “airplane” mode, the location of the photo still registered. The picture above was over Burgaw, North Carolina. At the time, I had no idea where I was other than approaching my landing at ILM. It is a strange phenomena to think that the location in the sky correlates with a location on land. Don’t you think that is kind of strange? One would think the sky has its own unique space, not a location on the earth, but either way, I was over North Carolina when the sky offered me a visual delight.
I was struck and amazed at the sight I was beholding and I couldn’t get enough of what I was witnessing through the less than clear plastic window of the airplane. The experience caused me to ponder and ponder I did. Here are some of my fleeting thoughts and unaware of actual speed, as I zoomed through the sky in a jet plane.
When you’re high above earth your view is quite different. Even though I’m looking down, the sky is still above me. The sky is always above no matter where you are.
As I looked down upon the clouds, as opposed to looking up at the clouds as we do when our feet are planted on ground, the clouds become the bottom as opposed to being on the top, so to speak. The clouds became the ground and even had a mountain-like appearance. Normally the clouds are just clouds, masses of gases that form beautiful shapes. But when you’re actually in the sky clouds can be everywhere. You can be in, above or below the white masses.
This particular day, with the setting sun in front of me, the pastels colors captured my fascination. I am a pastel person. I am drawn to art in pastels probably because I find them soothing and perhaps even peaceful. I think that is where I want my mind to always be, in a state of peace. Of course I do like bold colors too, but I am not a bold person so my tendency render more towards the pastel palate. Here in these photos, the colors all blend together in an array of subtlety and effortlessness.
Vastness. Expanse. Being up in the sky makes you feel so small and yet I felt privileged to be able to view such a sight. I think it is important to pause, gaze and wonder. I may have been the only one that was in a reverent posture but those that didn’t soak in the sight of the sky, missed an opportunity to be influenced by the beauty of creation.
Lastly, as the clouds blanketed the sky below me it made me think that those with feet planted on the ground missed out on this spectacular sight. Perhaps they were looking up only to see clouds. Their day was more gray than blue with peaks of blue spurting through every once and awhile. Where I was, the sky was blue and the setting sun was shining in the distance, despite the clouds all around me.
Sometimes we need to stop and ponder and deliberately take a moment to reflect on where we are, whether it’s thousands of feet in the atmosphere or looking at another form of beauty. Even though clouds may be present, there are blue skies and sun shining somewhere. Hopefully not to far away.
