Sky Walk
Where do you rest your gaze?
A Familiar Spot, A New Story
There’s this spot on our morning walk that I’ve photographed more times than I can count. Same view, same stretch of road, but each time it looks a little different, like it’s telling me a new story.
On this morning, though, something about it stopped me. The sky was pulling in two directions at once. Out ahead, storm clouds are stacking up in the distance. But right around me - at my feet, across the water - the sun was shining bright, sharp, almost defiant. And I knew: This was a picture I wanted to write about.
Storms in the Distance, Light at My Feet
There was some push and pull going on here that carried a weight of its own - a tension between what might be coming, and what was already here.
“The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”
Henry David Thoreau
What Am I Looking At? What Do You See?
I know how easy it is to keep my eyes locked on the “what ifs.” I’ve done it plenty of times - staring into the distance, trying to calm storms that may never actually reach me. And in the meantime? I miss what’s glowing right here, the small moments that keep me anchored in the present.
“Sometimes I need only to stand wherever I am to be blessed.”
Mary Oliver
Reading the Sky
Storms are part of life. They’re always out there on the horizon. But so is the light. Both are inevitable.
The invitation isn’t to deny the storm, but to choose what we notice in the midst of it. It doesn’t matter whether the brightness is at your back, shining where you’ve just been, or coming up ahead in your direction. What matters is paying attention to what is real while it’s happening. The light is always here, constantly pushing back at the dark.
Leaning Into Storms, Choosing the Brightness
Walking through that scene, I realized how much it mirrored the way my mind works. Life can feel turbulent, noisy, and uncertain. And yet, right alongside all that, there’s brightness too. I get to choose where I rest my gaze.
“Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
And as for those storm clouds ahead? They pass. They always do. Sometimes they roll on without ever touching us - nothing more than shadows in the distance.
The Practice of Gaze
These days, I try to notice where my gaze goes. Sometimes I give it a little double-take, just to be sure I’m seeing what’s really there. And more often than not, that brings a kind of rest.
Because the truth is, there’s always brightness at my feet, even when storms are gathering somewhere else.
Light is the place where darkness once stood.
Talk soon…
G