Watching the Sky

Back in the day when there was no Internet, AI, or cloudburst computing, watching the sky used to be the entertainment. Looking up at the sky in wonder is exhilarating and sometimes awe-inspiring and refreshing. I am a sky watcher of sorts, but I have to admit that things can get so intense and busy in my ordinary human life that I don’t look up from what I am doing to notice things like the sky sometimes. It can happen to anyone. If you keep up the intensity and busyness, you might miss important occasions like birthdays, anniversaries or celestial events.

In just a few days, on April 8, the total eclipse of the sun will be visible to many people in the United states and Mexico. For us in the San Francisco Bay Area, we get to see a partial eclipse, which will look like someone has taken a bight out of the sun for a few minutes. Being aware of what happens in the sky is a way of being aware of what is happening in the world. It can be a moment of unity when we share the same experience at the same time.

Just looking up

You don’t have to wait for an eclipse to look up at the sky. Almost always there are clouds in the sky, and you can stop for a few moments and look out your window or go outside and just look up to see a cloud or two in the sky. Watching the clouds pass is a great way to “step out of life” for a moment and still be in it. As you take in the big vista of sky above you, you can also look at birds and trees and other plants. For a few moments, you can just exist as a part of things. At times like this, you can free your imagination to look at what is taking shape above you and around you. Clouds can look like animals, machines, or people, but they also have characteristics you can observe and identify.

The early morning clouds feel different from the clouds you see, full of pink and sometimes purple colors, when the sun is setting where I live. The shapes of clouds have names that I find poetic: lenticular, cumulonimbus, cirrus, and altostratus to name a few (go to the cloud atlas to get the full list). Taking a break to see the clouds in the sky can be a great moment to reflect on your day and dream.

Times I have looked up at the sky, I have sometimes just felt a great unknowing and giving up of thoughts and identities and motivations. It’s just the clouds. One time, during an argument with my spouse, Michael, an argument I can’t remember anymore, he looked out the window, stopped talking and said, “Look at that little cloud over there. It’s so cute!” That moment changed everything. We started laughing and stopped arguing. We just gave up the fight. That’s the best kind of giving up.

The meanings of clouds and eclipses

In literature and everyday spoken language, clouds mean many things that tie back to what we can perceive and experience. When your mind is in the clouds, you are daydreaming and not present to what you are doing . When things are cloudy or foggy, you can’t tell what is in front of you or what is coming at you. Driving in the fog is dangerous. Fog and haze mean confusion that usually goes with exhaustion: to go around in a fog means you are in a trance and maybe feeling like you have to try hard to keep it together. The Chinese sages and artists have said that clouds near the ground, what we call mist, represent the way energy and information (the Qi) moves. Energy and information, like mist, can float anywhere and affect things. Mist in your eyes usually means tears and being overcome with emotion about something important. Clouds inside you and around you mean something undeniable is happening.

Clouds can express mystery and the unknown, what we cannot see clearly or what we cannot predict with certainty. Clouds constantly change, and so they are watched closely by meteorologists for weather reports. But even a trusted weather report can still be surprising or flat out wrong on the day. Clouds are moving and changing and affecting things all the time. Clouds are thus a great encouragement to not get caught up in things staying the same, but to be observant and watchful—in a reasonable and maybe even playful way.

Eclipses happen rarely, and so they represent something big and special. In the old days, when very few people were tracking the sky and stars, eclipses were warnings about big changes that were about to sweep through the nations, signaling the kind of change that changes everything. Eclipses can mean endings or beginnings, the part of the earthly cycle where everything changes and cannot revert back to the way it was. Think of it this way. The sun rises each day, each day without fail, and then one day the sun is completely blocked and different for a few minutes. To the ancients the sun being blocked like this was shocking and perhaps terrifying. We, on the other hand, can be in awe of the celestial event, because we know what it is thanks to centuries of astronomy. You may be fortunate to look up (with special eclipse glasses, of course) and see this moment in time when the sun is different for yourself. In that moment, you can experience a visceral sense deep down in the unconscious part of you that things can change and be different. The message is received by a deep and ancient part of you.

Something new may emerge as a result.