I am really tired this evening. I might need to take a nap before I go pick my son up from work at 11. I worked the usual hard but good shift at the Berkeley Food Pantry before having an early dinner and catching up with my friend Mary. It was good hanging out with her as always and as often happens we barely got through half the things we needed to catch up on.
As I drove home I caught sight of the full (or nearly full) moon, shining brightly in the sky with Mars hovering just above it. I marveled at its spectacular brilliance, and the close alignment of Jupiter and Venus hanging in bright display in another part of the sky caused me to pull over for a few moments and–foolishly, but I had to try–attempt to take a picture of them. I have always found the “heavens” interesting and amazing. There’s so much we don’t know about so many things. I find it amazing sometimes that some humans can be so arrogant about what they (think) know that they fail to realize the true vastness of what we don’t know. All around us are marvels–from heavenly bodies to our earthly ones, the wonders and complexity of the world we inhabit and the worlds that inhabit us are stunning. I am grateful for the wonders of nature and the universe and for the capacity and senses to be able to behold them and marvel.
I don’t have much to say this evening; I’ve fallen asleep a number of times as I’ve sat here trying to write. But I am grateful to have had a good day. So many things are happening in my life and in those of the people closest to me–my children. We could choose to look at them and complain about some of the challenges that have been handed to us over time. Or we can look at how much there is to celebrate and give thanks for, the richness and blessings that are in our daily lives that we could overlook if we weren’t careful.
Someone asked to me the other day about what I write about in this blog. She knows how much drama has unfolded in my life over the past year. “You focus on gratitude and what’s good in your life, so people don’t really know about how much you’re suffering because you put a positive spin on everything.” I considered this for a moment and replied that if people read between the lines, they can figure out that things have been tough for me. But perhaps not. I really have strived to find the positives even in the midst of the occasional “terrible, horrible, no good, really bad day” that I have periodically. I suppose I could spend more time realizing and recognizing how badly things “suck” (I know, terrible word choice but it fits), but I can hardly see how that’s going to help improve anything. So for now I will continue to focus on gratitude, even when it is sometimes between tears. I am grateful that, in the midst of the drama and trauma, I can still look up into the heavens and be silent before the wonders that surround me. This is a very good thing.
I hope that wherever you are in the world you will take yourself out on a clear evening over the next few days and gaze at the Venus-Jupiter conjunction that has been gracing our night skies and will grow even more spectacular over the next few days. Though my pictures didn’t turn out particularly well (so I didn’t post them), you can find them in various places like this one: http://www.universetoday.com/93859/astrophotos-moon-venus-and-jupiter-conjunction/ Looking at these photos inspires me to want to try again and see if I can find a setting that allows me to capture a reasonable image. If stars aren’t what inspires awe in you, find something somewhere that does. I guarantee it’ll be worth the effort.
