Let Us Look Up by Barry Hughes

I made the decision at the beginning of this time of quarantine and closed gyms that I would walk the exact same 10,000+ step route through my neighborhood each day. If time, weather and body permitted, I would add to the walk, but I would always, every day, stay this set course.

I chose this approach, not just because of my deep need to stick to set routines, but because I wanted to observe the changes that might come from day to day and week to week around the neighborhood. Little did any of us know that “day to day” and “week to week” would turn into month to month. 

Today, as I made the second to last turn on my set course, I literally stopped and stared for a few moments. There, cascading over the top of an 8 ft cedar face, were flowering branches of a tree weighed down with magnificent purple beauty. The blossoms seemed to glow against the overcast and darkening skies. It was truly spectacular.

The tree was in full bloom, which meant that this was no overnight phenomenon. I had made this corner and walked the sidewalk along this fence 7 days a week, rain or shine, for longer than I care to recall. Yet I had missed this gift. I had passed this way unaware of the beauty that was so near. I was oblivious to this glorious change because, it seems, my head was down.

I had never thought of myself as one to journey through this life with my eyes on the ground, but it seems that I had been doing that very thing and being that very person. I wonder what else I have missed, what other beauty I have passed, just above my line of sight and close enough to touch.

If my college choir made the same mistake twice on a piece of music we were rehearsing, the director would exclaim, “If the music is over your head, raise your head!” I realize that I need to “raise my head” as I walk, for there is much to embrace that can only be experienced with lifted eyes and head and heart.

Because my head was down, whose eyes have I failed to meet along the way? What life changing encounters have been mine, save for my failure to see? What beauty exists as a free and wonderful gift, if only I would see? Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “The reason all men honor love is because it looks up, and not down; aspires and not despairs.” Even as we walk through difficult days, let us look up. There is much of good and beauty to behold.

Let love keep us from despair.

Psalm 121 proclaims, “ I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from whence comes my help. My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.” God is always calling for us to look up so that we not be left in the challenge and struggles of life without the hope and beauty that surrounds us all. Look up.

Peace.

-Barry Hughes