Look Up

The other day I was walking through the woods and came across an armadillo rooting around on the forest floor. As far as I could tell, it never even knew I was there. Like a lot of us, it was oblivious to its surroundings while trying to hustle for its existence. It is easy and understandable for us to get bogged down with the stress and strain of our daily lives, particularly in our present circumstances. Somedays it’s all we can do to just to lower our heads and shuffle through the days.

Recently, though, I was reminded how important it is to occasionally to just look up. A few weeks ago the space station flew across the early morning sky. A friend’s Facebook post let me know when and where to look, so I stumbled out of bed, bundled up, and sleepily watched in awe as it arced through the predawn darkness. A few days later, I was strolling through the live oaks in our neighborhood and a flash of black and white caught my eye. As I focused in on the contrasting pattern up in the branches, I was surprised to see a loggerhead shrike, an uncommon but stunning little bird, for the very first time.

While random and relatively trivial, both of these situations added joy to my life and led me to reflect on what is good in this world. We as humans don’t lift our gaze nearly enough. Just by taking a few moments to look up can open our eyes to inspiration and encouragement. It doesn’t require much time and costs us nothing, so when we get a chance, look up!