One Sky

One sky
Bluest blue peaking through
Gray storm clouds hovering over
Blazing gold sunset 
One sky

One life
Bluest blue peaking through
Gray storm clouds hovering over  
Blazing gold sunset
One life

In my one life, we always need groceries.  In my one life, we are on a tight budget, so I buy most of said groceries at Aldi, where you put a quarter into a slot to release your cart and where you bag or box your own purchases.  The lightning flashed while I waited at the checkout, and in my anxiousness to get home, I forgot to put my food into the empty boxes I had collected from the warehouse style shelves as I shopped.  I realized it when I got to the car, and debated going back to fill them, but like I said, I was trying to beat the lightening that might soon be directly over me.  So I threw the loose groceries in the back seat, and then went to return the cart to the store.  That's when I grabbed the boxes and hurried back to my car. 

And that's when I looked up at the sky.

I don't think I'd ever seen it like that before: a band of dramatic dark gray storm clouds with a sunset down below at one edge, and bright patches of clear blue sky above.

One sky.  So many different "conditions" in my one sweeping view.  I wish I'd been able to back up further to catch more of it -- a bigger perspective -- or to turn around and try to snap the elusive lightning bolts.  But alas, my iPod battery died, and that's all I had.

So like my life.  Such a metaphor.  One sky.  One life.  So much variety.  So much change.  Joy and grief all at once.  And I'm trying to catch the grander significance of each moment, to try to fit it in to the jigsaw picture of what I know or thought I knew.  Fleeting moments.

But I also think of "one sky" in the sense that it is the same one here as it is over my family and friends in the metropolis of Beijing or a village in Malawi or farm in Missouri or in suburban Maryland or just down the road here in the Orlando area.  Our lives may be so completely different, but somewhere there is common ground, or in this metaphor, common sky.  People on this earth.  People whom One God created.  "And it is good."

Enjoy your moments with the people who love you and/or whom you love.  Even if you can't see them or talk to them as often as you'd like, they dwell in your thoughts and prayers.  And at night, they look up at the same sky.

Much love,
Virginia Knowles
www.VirginiaKnowles.blogspot.com

P.S. You like?  More cloud pictures here: 

• Is My Head in the Clouds? (And Notes on Beauty)
• "Shimmer and Shadow" (A Poem, P52 Photos, More)
• Weekend Gratitude: Lake Sybelia at Sunset, Lake Lily at Dusk