Head in the Clouds
For the past month or so, I find myself looking up at the sky. Sometimes I just stop, my head tilts right back, and I gaze toward heaven. The clear blue over the open desert is so inviting you can easily get lost, feeling as though you could slip right into space. I start work at 5:30am and the sun doesn’t really make a dent in the day until around 7:00am. I like to take my morning break standing in the parking lot, letting those first rays soak in and recharge my battery. The view from work isn’t too bad.
We’ve had some rainy days and I’ll spend my lunch watching the layers of clouds race each other to some unknown finish line. Cooler weather brings more birds to the valley as they escape the cold of the northern part of the state. I especially enjoy the return of the ravens. Watching their gleaming black bodies glide across the pale blue is simply beautiful. Some nights, I just open the front door to check the stars. Since I moved to the desert, I’ve been promising myself I’d drive out into the middle of nowhere to look at the night sky without the city lights to ruin it. I’ve gotta do that.
Stand at the right elevation, and you can see into the distance for what seems like forever. Standing on the steps of my daughter’s school, you look over the open desert and swear you can see into Mexico. Every time I pick her up, I marvel at the view and wonder if anyone else even notices what an incredible spot it is. The only thing that spoils that view is the army of custom SUV’s in the parking lot. I guess you have to take the bad with the good.
I find that I don’t need an object in the sky to focus on. The mountain in the distance doesn’t need a dramatic peak. The wide-open, empty space is just fine. I still haven’t figured out what I’m looking for yet. If it hits me, I’ll be sure to let you know.
Side note: When I sat down to write this, I actually had to stop and think what music I wanted to play. Of course it was Ottmar. Little Wing. It’s been at least two months since my last listen and we needed to get reacquainted.
We’ve had some rainy days and I’ll spend my lunch watching the layers of clouds race each other to some unknown finish line. Cooler weather brings more birds to the valley as they escape the cold of the northern part of the state. I especially enjoy the return of the ravens. Watching their gleaming black bodies glide across the pale blue is simply beautiful. Some nights, I just open the front door to check the stars. Since I moved to the desert, I’ve been promising myself I’d drive out into the middle of nowhere to look at the night sky without the city lights to ruin it. I’ve gotta do that.
Stand at the right elevation, and you can see into the distance for what seems like forever. Standing on the steps of my daughter’s school, you look over the open desert and swear you can see into Mexico. Every time I pick her up, I marvel at the view and wonder if anyone else even notices what an incredible spot it is. The only thing that spoils that view is the army of custom SUV’s in the parking lot. I guess you have to take the bad with the good.
I find that I don’t need an object in the sky to focus on. The mountain in the distance doesn’t need a dramatic peak. The wide-open, empty space is just fine. I still haven’t figured out what I’m looking for yet. If it hits me, I’ll be sure to let you know.
Side note: When I sat down to write this, I actually had to stop and think what music I wanted to play. Of course it was Ottmar. Little Wing. It’s been at least two months since my last listen and we needed to get reacquainted.
posted by MT Callahan | 6:21 PM
1 Comments:
Just escaped a thunder storm that seems to bring lots of snow ...
Intensely written, covering beautiful moments. I wish we all would be able to use the break at work to not only head for a cigarette, a coffee or a hectic chat but to empty the head, to wash the day's dust out of the brain, to get oneself together again in a certain way. Reads to be a nice region on earth where you are living. Only thing still hard to imagine are the city lights. Here you hardly have any. But no desert scents either.
These days I have to catch the train at 6:30 in the morning. It's the train which the pupils take. We have minus degrees here so they take shelter in a small waiting room. Usually I arrive some 5 minutes before the departure of the train. After having bought my ticket from a soulless automat, I go out, no matter what weather is, to feel the freshness, the wind, sometimes rain. Yesterday we had a clear blue sky in the morning. The day was dawning very faintly behind the mountains. So you saw a deep blue sky, hardly any stars anymore, the sky getting very slightly a bit lighter until he reaches the mountain tops in the east. So good the air. I was standing next to the railroad, my head tilted back the way you described it, and couldn't stop looking into the sky. A plane was passing by and you could see that high up were strong winds. When the train arrived, I had to force myself to step into it.
It is the same and yet a different experience of the sky when you are surrounded by mountains. Wonder what Char Rothschild would say to this.
The experience of the openness, the passing clouds etc. takes you in a different way. My parents sometimes still dream of the open sky in northern Germany. They don't like the way the sky opens up here.
The most intense impression looking at an open sky I had in Russia's Far East. It was my first trip that far away and somehow I couldn't get that I was still standing upright. Guess my soul hadn't caught up yet. I sat with two friends near a chinese market outside the city, we took some beer and ate Schaschliki. Above and around us was nearly nothing except for the wide open sky, covered by some clouds. For a long time I wasn't able talking with my friends. I starred and starred, the impression was hard to handle.
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