The Path

I was looking out the window, saying my prayers (a nightly ritual of mine), and thinking about my grandma, hoping that one day I will see her again, but not really knowing what I believe.

As I was getting up to go to bed, I noticed a line in the road, a crack, meandering its way across the road perpendicularly, originating on my side of the road and continuing on across to the other side.

A thought struck me.  Now, I am not one to immediately believe that God or my grandma was trying to communicate with me in any way, necessarily, by my sudden awareness of this crack and my thoughts thereafter, but I will admit that the possibility did cross my mind.

I looked at the line and I drew an immediate parallel between it and life..the path it took was crooked, ohhh so crooked, but it still seemed to be headed for something certain, as if despite an insect following the crack and feeling like it is wandering all over in no certain direction, I, from my larger point of view, my perch presiding over the bigger picture, I guess you could say, could see an obvious direction in the wavering path.

And as my eyes followed the crack in the road from where it began onward, I noticed that the line was harder and harder to see, it getting farther and farther from where I was at the present moment, yet I still knew, I just knew, that that path was headed somewhere, more specifically, to the other side of the road.

For a moment there, thinking of the crack in terms of life, it seemed almost silly to me to think that people look at their life paths and, just because they can't see it all from where they are situated, think that there is nothing more beyond what they are seeing.  Looking at the crack, it was obvious to me that despite my inability to see farther, the path didn't just stop.  Why should I assume that the path stops right at the spot beyond which I can see no farther...?

Okay, I really feel like a priest or something right now, so I'm going to wrap up the sermon, but I really did have this thought, and it's interesting.  I oftentimes find myself grappling for faith, but experiences like these make me think that maybe, just maybe, there is another side to this road.

Last night,

I looked up at the sky, and all the stars splayed across it like...oh I don't know, what new way can there be to describe the stars?  I feel like every metaphor, every simile has already been spoken for those little wonders.

I found myself thinking how the sky looks the same for everyone, no matter their location.  It is a constant in our lives, no matter who, no matter where, no matter when.

From the very first time you looked up in wonder and contemplated is there more? to this very moment, that sky that hovers above us has never changed.

I'd like to simply state that observation without interpreting it or relating it--just leave the thought to stand on its own and perhaps provide a moment of reflection and yet...it's just not my nature!

This observation made me think of how small so many of our problems actually are in the scheme of things; that no matter what is going on down here on earth, the same sky is watching over us, calm, vast, and brilliant.