Food for our Minds and Spirits: Cloudy Skies

I was so excited about a reflection to share about stargazing as a way to observe the 2nd UU Principle. It so happens that there is a comet hurtling through our skies this month (you can read all about it here!) And if you were attending or watching our worship on Sunday, you heard all about comets and the way that the Sun is the center of the solar system even when a far-flung comet can barely see it. Gravity still pulls and creates an orbit that centers a comet just as it does our planet.

There was only one problem: cloudy skies all week. Sadly, the crisp, clear Winter nights were being shy this week. It was a real bummer, because it was a great connecting idea that brought our observance of Chalica together with our theme of finding our center and this thing we discussed on Sunday! Stupid clouds.

But I realized something in my frustration about expectations and possibility. My idea about seeing the stars made me think clouds were just in the way. Useless. Certainly not meaningful. But maybe that is missing the beauty of clouds and the particular feeling of being wrapped up that they can elicit. I was focused on the attention-grabbing beauty of stars to draw in a sense of our shared experience of the night’s sky. But clouds do that too, creating a backdrop of colors and textures in the sky that are also beautiful.

The spiritual truth about our interconnectedness and the equity it calls us to in our relationships can be seen in the stars just as it can be seen in the clouds. It can be seen in a room full of people, or when we are all by ourselves. If we learn––if I can learn––not to let me expectations limit what I see, how much more beauty will I be able to perceive?

Sometimes it is hard to tap into our spiritual selves or find time to nurture our creativity and intellectual curiosity. Here is a section that reflects on some nourishing materials from around the web and related media channels in order to get us thinking, get us feeling, and get us reflecting on the lives we are living in this big world. **Some Adult/Mature Themes May Appear in Links and Other Attached Material**

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Allan T. Georgia, MDiv, MTS, PhD