SKY GAZING
The Isolation Blues;
reflections during covid-19
early days of autumn the early days of autumn are a mild marker of hard change just ahead we know what that means and even when you know it’s coming it doesn’t make it any easier to take when it arrives; trees dropping their body of leaves stand naked in the gray landscape cold wind winding through branches of little resistance thermometer dropping steadily an attempt to get our attention before it’s too late to finish errands intended to be finished before now wood piles stacked and organized in preparation for winter at its worst the pantry stocked with harvest provisions and boxes of pasta waiting for consumption although the mind can move at the speed of light my body needs to take its time on days and mornings like this when I’m still feeling the after-effects of yesterday’s toils the collateral noise of this world and its important business of stock markets and politics an unrelenting barrage on my spare time and lofty intentions of trying to make some sense of it all the while abiding the congestion of time and local space and everything I need to get done today I look overhead and I see seven Canadian geese in open sky heading north in an asymmetrical V five on one side two on the other the lead goose honking instructions (or something) the others haphazardly reply this is my much needed break on a day such as this and I return to my tasks with much better odds in my favor thirty minutes later I hear another honk it’s a lone goose unhurried flying back from the same direction he just came he must have forgotten something…
It’s been eight months now since covid upended life as we knew it and here we are entering what could be a long and worsening winter of covid-complications (smack me if I’m sounding too pessimistic). Our usual list of winter preparations are expanded this year with the additional concerns of not knowing quite what to expect next. I know how many cord of wood I need to make it to mud season but I have no idea how American unemployment numbers are going to look or the state of our democratic institutions come spring.
A friend of mine shared this story with me years ago, about what he would do when the cares of the crazy world got to be too much. He was working in the woods on his wood lot and it was the middle of the afternoon about this time of year. And while he worked he would also be thinking a whole list of things in his head; the state of global affairs, the American stock market, the price of gasoline and used cars, his personal list of work projects (their success or possible failure), what he was going to have for dinner that night and the meaning of life in the extended cosmos. You get the idea. He would find himself becoming overwhelmed by the entirety of it all and getting more and more uptight as he went on. Then, this one day he just stopped for a moment and looked up to the sky…Immediately, everything in his mind just fell away and there was nothing but the open space of blue sky, white clouds slowly moving, a light breeze on his face. The sky had been there the whole time and had been for years, but his mind was consumed by the details of the day; what had to be done and the how of doing it. From that day on, whenever he caught himself with this constricted and stressed feeling he would practice what he called “sky-gazing” – stop for a moment, stop thinking and look overhead to the spacious sky. It was a way to “re-boot” and restore a more relaxed approach to the rest of the day. Nothing in the imperfect world had changed or gone away but there was a new way of viewing it and experiencing it.
This is what I’m doing in the poem “Early Days of Autumn.” When I look overhead and see the geese, my mind is taking a much needed break and releasing the congestion of way too much thinking.
this is my much needed break on a day such as this and I return to my tasks with much better odds in my favor
If recent stressors are beginning to take their toll you may want to consider “sky-gazing” as a regular part of your daily routine. It also combines nicely with a leisurely walk and a hot cup of coffee…
Please continue to take care everyone.
In the woods,
Dave
October 22, 2020