Gleanings from February—Sky Gazing

Look up at the sky and contemplate how amazing life is.*

When I was a kid, I remember lying down in the wide expanse of an alfalfa field looking up at an even wider, wilder expanse of blue sky.  There were so many things to contemplate at that time in my life—many of them amazing and life-affirming.  But I also remember having lots of questions about life that didn’t come with tidy answers and good feelings.

February’s cache of photos included a vast array of sky pictures—moons, sunrises, clouds, and spectacular sunsets.  I’m always amazed at the colors that can appear in the evening sky, how the orange sunlight can produce purple clouds…

and how orange clouds with tinges of pink look against the blue sky.

February’s full moon rose in a mottling of clouds, casting an almost-rainbow halo around itself.

Later in the evening, the clouds cleared, and I was finally able to see The Lady in the Moon as described to me by Muriel in the comments of my post Gleanings from September–One Way then Another.

Another amazing thing about sunsets is how they can change in just a matter of minutes.  The clouds move, the colors morph as the sun sets and the sky darkens.  This is how the sky changed in just eight minutes, all the while maintaining that white streak….

We didn’t have much snow in February, but on the last day, gray skies and tumbling snowflakes shrouded the bare trees.

This is one of my favorite sunset pictures.  The white zigzag seems like a portal to another world, an enticing glimpse of something beyond ourselves, even while the present, visible world is magnificent!

A blue sunset sky and quarter moon soothes the senses like a bedtime story.

One likes to think that after decades of living that answers come easy and it is no longer necessary to gaze up at the sky and contemplate life, but I know that is not true.  My childhood contemplation, my sky gazing, were rudimentary endeavors at living a conscientious life, of being in prayer with the great Creator.  I know that continues throughout our lives.  As we live, we experience heightened life-affirming events but also crushing despair, beyond which we could ever imagine as a child.  There are still questions, albeit different ones, without tidy answers and good feelings.  But as our lives are changing, all the while, a white streak of Goodness maintains us, soothes our senses, shrouds us with Love, and lets us catch a glimpse through a portal to What Is.

*Some had this quote from Rhonda Byrne, others had Unknown.