No matter where you sit as you read these words,
Regardless of the environmental conditions that may have fallen out of balance around you, inciting:
Excesses of water and wind in the form of hurricanes swelling into, overcoming,
communities
Devastating fires that rip through root and branch, flesh and leaf, car, house, storefront
Leaving Earth flooded where once it held homes, leaving Earth scorched and barren
Filling the air beings need with toxins and fumes that wreak havoc on living systems
Clearing out what was once beautiful
Laying bare what was once filled with life
Filling up what was once populated
Obscuring views, perspectives, and traveling in wide thick swaths of acridity
Water consuming
Fire consuming
Wind carrying
Earth bearing
The elements are here for us. In balance, they give us life. Life!
Replenishment for our from sacs-of-water bodies.
Warmth in which we can comfortably bask and stay thermoregulated.
Precious lifegiving breath.
Beauty, oh so very much beauty, all around us on the landscape. Food to stay alive. Shelter to stay safe. Wild creatures with which we can be in communion. Floral delicacies to bless us.
This morning I was driving my car eastbound just as dawn broke open in glory. I found the task of controlling the vehicle a distraction as my eager heart and always-beauty-seeking eyes locked onto and savored the lavender-salmon-ecru sky.
A sky that holds:
the moisture in layers of icing-sweet clouds
the fire of sunlight rising
the movement of breezes shifting shapes
the colors mimicking Earth’s beasts and landforms.
I pulled over the car so that I could just watch this beauty-morsel unfolding.
So, no matter where you are or what you are doing, pause for a decadent moment with your eyes toward the sky. Quiet your mind. Still your pace. Soften your emotions. And enjoy what is given to you freely: the blessings of the elements and a sky that bears it all.
