Riding to a Higher Place

 

A Farmer’s Field Art

Riding to a Higher Place

The early morning air was, well, it was just plain cold.  It was January after all.  And, the sun was not up yet.  That all added up to a cold, dark walk to the airport terminal.  Even at this early hour I was focused on giving myself marching orders.

“Don’t walk too casually on that patch of ice or you’ll find yourself on the asphalt!”  I muttered as I walked forward.

It was going to be a hectic day for sure.  Not just because I was traveling.  These days It seems as if most days are on the edge of being frenzied.  Sometimes I think it’s just me.  It most likely is. Yet, as I swim my way through most days it seems as if others around me are sharing the experience of being harried.

Perhaps that feeling was being amplified during this particular moment.  I left a little late to drive to the airport.  Then, I walked half way to the terminal before I remembered my face-shielding mask was sitting in my car.  So, I walked back to my car, got the mask, walked to the terminal, put it on and was instructed to remove it, when a TSA Agent wanted to compare my face to the photo on my driver’s license.

Snap!

The ear-bands on that mask, thing, broke as I began to lift if away!

Luckily, the TSA Agent simply smiled, said, “Not a problem!”, and handed me a fresh mask so I could continue on.  Whew!

I made the flight and settled into my seat so I could fret about all the things I needed to get done for the day.  Then, there was a magical moment that changed the way I was going about living for the rest of this day.

A little daily sunshine always goes a long way toward lifting my spirits, so I decided to slide that little window shade cover up, just to let a little enlightenment ride the light into my brain.  And, it just so happened.

There in the dawn, in the dim morning light, as the world was coming alive again, I saw the distinct image of a huge horse in a field below.  There were other field shapes too.  But, this one was not the regular square, rectangle or circle.  Its image was distinctive, divergent, inspiring and made me wonder.

“I never would have seen this had I not been lifted ‘above it all’.  I wonder what other wonders I’m missing by not taking the time to allow myself to be lifted on a regular basis?”

It’s easy to become caught, trapped in the regular.  Caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life.  When that happens, it becomes difficult to see just how magical the world really is.  It’s hard to see how inspiring our universe is if you aren’t somehow lifted out of what you’re seeing on the ground, to a higher vantage point.

There are all kinds of vehicles to take us, you and me, to such a place.  It could be the time you take to create inspiring art, just like the farmer who brings horses alive by growing them as huge murals in the form of a crop.  Or perhaps you like to write?  It might be the time you take to exercise?  It doesn’t really matter what lifts you.  What is important is to find what that thing is and to allow it to give you a ride to a higher place, out of the everyday hustle and bustle, on a regular basis.

The early morning air is, regularly, just plain cold in January.  And, even though the sun was not up yet on just such a day, it was about to rise.  What I didn’t know, as I was walking to the airport terminal, was that I was about to ride an airplane to experience how one farmer’s field-art would teach, anyone who saw it, about the importance of being lifted to a better vantage point.