Sky Series

A few nights ago the sky from our patio awed us once again. It's getting to the time of year that the sun has moved across the horizon and sets in a place that peeks out from the side of our apartment building. The building we lived in before is is just across the street. We faced west and while only on the 8th floor, we were just above the tree line, with nothing else blocking the way, and had a spectacular sunset view each night. We'd mark the calendar and the seasons by the setting position, which shifted slowly across the horizon line from left to right then back again once we hit solstice. It was our own sundial.

Now we face east and south, bringing us an magnificent sweep from the skyscrapers downtown past the Zoo to Rice University Village. The Mecom fountain, and beyond it, The Park's reflection pool and the blue lake sparkle back at me from my windows -- a refreshing break amid streets and low lying buildings. Some days we can make out clear to Galveston and the ship channel.

We always see the sunrise and the moon rise, but the sky on the west side only looks like this for a few months in winter.


As much as I have struggled at times with living in a city that doesn't offer much of what I thrive on, I think I need to focus more on things that I have been brought into my life that I would not necessarily find elsewhere. For all the "big sky', the gulf breezes and the storms that run fast and furious through Houston, we always have uniquely changing cloudscapes and air texture... and they make for some of the most beautiful skies, changing in every moment as dusk descends.

Whether or not our conditions in this moment are ideal, there is beauty to be found, and a wealth of extraordinary in the ordinary to be mined if we only can take it in.
What are those things in your day, where you live? Whether it's a bit of nature, moments with your child or pet or aging parent, your health or the fact that you have this thing called a car and it takes you places, are there small miracles around you which don't register enough?