How often do we really stare into the sky, into the blackness made perfect by stars all too simple, yet completely beautiful?
Tonight I left the crazy that is the shower routine, for the backyard and patiently waiting washing line. The unnatural lights of the inside faded to but a glow behind me as I ventured forth into the cold wind that had picked up in the hour since the last load of washing had been hung out to dry.
I placed the basket down and began the monotonous task that I had done so often before that I could do it with my eyes closed. Silence filled only with the rustle of leaves enveloped me as I shivered absentmindedly, lost in thoughts of the days to come. Then somewhere between reaching for pegs and hanging yet another item of clothing on the line, I caught a glimpse of a star in the distance.
I stopped suddenly and stared. The star became an entire sky, filling my vision with a view known around the world and surely connecting me at that very moment with more people than I could ever meet in the life I had ahead. The breeze, with it's hint of almost-gone blossoms whipped around me, my hair feeling light with a life of it's own. My eyes widened, my shoulders suddenly relaxed, as time felt to disappear. I felt small. Small not in a bad way, but rather a how-amazing-and-huge-is-the-sky way.
All I could think was - limitless.
It's easy to get caught up in boxes. Limits. It helps the illusion of control to remain safely within reach. But with control and certainty there is also loss. A loss that can be unnoticeable because what exists beyond the limits can be forgotten. Possibilities are often imagined and weighed for likelihood. But in truth, real possibility is without boundaries. All is possible. All. And that is just too much and too big to comprehend. It's the sky at night, with stars uncountable. So comfortable limits and boxes and held close. Fear it kept at bay.
But there is beauty in this place beyond limits. With the sky open before me, potential and enormity is not all that I see. In the
all I also clearly see a simple beauty in what actually exists when something is not altered, controlled and packaged, in a nice little convenient way. It's the wildness. The pattern with no fixed starting point or perfect repetition. It just is the way it is with no need to make it what it is not. There is no pretending. There is no wall trying to hold anything in or hold anything back.
How often do you stare out into the blackness, the perfect amazing sky full of stars, and just breathe in the possibilities that exist beyond your now? Perhaps it is time to spend a moment letting go of the box and looking at the limitless potential that exists there. Beauty may vey well be in a simple place that may never be found while holding on so very tight.
Control is an illusion. Let go and look beyond. The stars are there not to frighten us with their endless nature, but rather to inspire and help us understand one very important thing: keep looking up, and moving forward. All is possible.
Jen.x
