Whenever I’m feeling icky with a cold or the flu, hot tea is always my go-to. I especially love it when my tea bag comes with quotes and words of wisdom on the little paper tab. This morning the quote on my Buddha Tea read..."You are the sky. The rest is just weather."
It puts a new light on the saying "under the weather," especially since I'm legitimately not feeling great at the moment. But this quote set me off on a nostalgic adventure to my youth in the Pacific Northwest. Although we were always road-tripping and car camping throughout the Northwest, I had only traveled anywhere by airplane twice in my life by the time I was in 8th grade. So I guess I assumed the rest of the world was as gray and dreary as Seattle area - with the exception of some imagined Bali Hai tropical island far, far away. I never really had any concept that blue sky could exist above the perpetual winter gray.
That is, until one day, my third flight ever, I soared above the clouds. The contrast was staggering. We took off from SeaTac and within minutes we were above the layer of gray, and it was all blue sky and sunshine as far as you could see. It was breathtaking. You could see the peak of Mt. Rainier towering above the layer of clouds, and the sky was the richest, deepest blue you could ever imagine.
How could there possibly be all this sunshine up here, when down below it was so dark? I wondered.
It was a defining moment for me, and as I've gotten older, I have found even deeper meaning in that experience. I remind myself of the ever-present "light of the sky" as I wade through moods and troubles and ebbs and flows of life. The same concept can be said about the waves that churn and the storms that ravage at the surface of the ocean. No matter what’s going on at the surface, down below is peace and stillness. The serenity at the depths of the ocean and at the great heights of the sky are always there, it's just a matter of staying in touch with it, regardless of the passing storm clouds.