seeing sky

a blue true dream of sky

The Rig Veda asks us to contemplate the nature of the sky in order to understand the true nature of our own being.

I’ve been noticing the sky a lot lately and noticing how clear and blue it is - bluer than I remember seeing for summertime in Wisconsin and more spectacular in almost every way. There have been some gorgeous sunrises, billowy big dark storm clouds and some beautiful rainbows this spring and summer. Now we have a comet at least for a couple more evenings in the northwest sky. Just look up and it’s almost always stunning.

Is this gorgeous 2020 sky the singular boon of life with this novel virus storming our world? I'm not sure if it's just that everything else that's so wrong has made us seek beauty all the more or if the decreased CO2 emissions from all of us doing less makes our air that much more visibly clear, or if it's mother nature cutting us a break for all the things we're dealing with right now, but I'll take it. There’s plenty to deal with for sure and we need our feet firmly planted to the ground, with plenty of work to do. And how do we bring an ounce of this beauty and grace into being but it’s so nice to know be able to look up and see the clear blue expanse. And if we see these things in the sky might we see them in ourselves and maybe in each other as well?

Just Look up

In ayurveda there’s a practice of shifting the gaze to work with one’s inner state and that lifting the gaze helps to lift us up, and it’s a practice that I’ve worked with both on and off my mat to work with my Kapha nature and tendency toward depression. The sky this summer has been a powerful resource for me to invite me to lift my gaze and look toward clarity and possibility and giving me the energy to do the good work that lies ahead...

Just look in

And I’m reflecting on this week and how this blue is revealing my nature.

In the words of Mary Angelon Young, just the act of contemplation is an inner yoga. And she invited contemplation and radical self-honesty by pondering these questions:

How am I right now?
Where and when am I bright and illuminated?
Where and when am I free and flowing?
Where and where am I spontaneous and true to myself?
Where and when do I feel clear and free?
Where and when do I feel constricted and cloudy?
Where and when a I feeling lost and confused?
What brings me joy and what brings me sorrow?
And can I live with and be enriched by both…

If you’re interested in hearing Mary Angelon Young talk about the art of contemplation it’d be a great listen for a long walk (about 60 minutes) - check it out here I loved it!