Space in a Moment

I went for a walk to let my mind take a break from work concerns and a rather large project I wish was going better.  I noticed immediately the rich blue color painted across the sky. It is just different in the fall, a deeper blue.  The Earth’s position in relation to the sun can create unimaginable beauty across the globe.  My senses stretched further out to feel the warmth of the sun on my skin.  How wonderful it is that our bright burning orb sends beautiful warmth out into space.  Combine that with our global positioning and the resulting motion of the air and Earth related temperatures and we have weather to contend with in various parts.  We don’t think much of the mechanics of it but it is complex and yet so very wonderful.

Our global concerns could be removed from us quite instantly and all we know and all we’ve understood could be rendered meaningless in one tiny shift of the construct and pattern of our universal existence here.  We don’t think about that. In a way, why should we?  Some of us might become quite fearful were we to fully realize how tenuous and fragile life on Earth truly was.  It’s best, I suppose to concern ourselves with keeping up with the Joneses, the Kardashians or whatever else we feel is really important.  No.  I don’t believe that.  Not for a minute although I do greatly respect all life, the Kardashians, the Joneses and all others across this planet.  At times I do wish I could concern myself with only trivial things but in this moment it is those trivial things I most desire to take a break from.  So, I wander on foot and let my mind meander.  Then I notice that the view is different as I arrive at a little thinking spot outside my office.   The skyline – wait, there is a skyline?  Sadly, they’ve cut down all the big and beautiful leafy green trees.  When did that happen? I wonder.

No matter.  They are gone now and I sit here mourning the loss of them.  They were big and beautiful and the city I work in does a really good job at maintaining a really good volume of beautiful trees.  Our life depends on them in so many ways but we take them for granted much until when on a hot sunny afternoon we should find ourselves fortunate to relax into the heat relieving shade of the trees.  My mind reaches out into space again thinking about the heat zone of our beautiful glowing sun.  At night you see the remnants of so many others.  Some of which are no longer even with us and yet their light continues to shine across the light years.  In fact, as we look at a nighttime sky, we’re looking into the past in a way.  The length of time it takes for light to travel to us here on Earth means that light could be long gone and we won’t know it – not yet.  I’m grateful for those big beautiful stars both those here and those gone for the beautiful light, heat and life they have promoted across the whole of space.  Space.  Space.  It’s more than that little bar on the keyboard you know.  Such a beautiful word it is, especially when you’re moving furniture, you need to get out of a crowd or you want to lie on your back at night and gaze upward for a huge drink of epic peace.

So many things my mind seems to long for and yet in the middle of the day I cannot let it fully roam.  If I did, I might not want to return to work and then the paycheck won’t come and my roof will disappear.  This would not be a good thing.  But a break away from the media, the presidential dramas, the hatred of opposition, the ignorance of us versus them and my project.  It doesn’t matter any of it really.  What matters in this moment is this big bright beautiful sun, this delicious blue sky and the sea breeze that flows up from the south about now.  The trees that are left, the green blades of grass covering the rough and uneven ground, and the life teeming everywhere I can conceivably focus my attention – THAT is what matters.  My phone quietly vibrates in my hands with a meeting reminder.  I take a deep breath in and hold it a few seconds longer than normal. I feel the space between my thoughts and try with all my might to mark the memory of it and then I rise to return to that big white building most appropriately signed.  I feel the heat of the sun almost doubled as I walk into a direct reflection of the sun on the ground.  I open the door so grateful for that big project and all the amazing people I’m working with on it.  And I realize I found a space of peace in an otherwise ordinary day.  It is the best kind of day.

© 2016 Jaie Hart