Corpus Christi Skies 2008, by Peter Berry
April 21, 2010
Memphis Airport
Traveling by plane always makes me so philosophical. Well, more philosophical. There is something about being up in the sky that is a mind blower to me, and thus invites my thoughts to wander farther then usual.
When I was maybe 4 years old, I was taken on my first airplane ride to New Jersey to see my Great Grandmother. What I remember about that ride is looking out at the clouds in absolute wonder and delight. Having attended a Christian preschool, I announced to my mother that this was where God lived, and I believed it; the magnificence of the clouds in the sky took my breath away even then. I also thought the clouds would taste great with my coke.
Over the years I have developed a fear of flying. (My fight to stay on earth and claim my life became more of an attachment…I always do that pendulum swing, it seems. Explore this reality, go in the opposite direction and experience that reality…you know, just to make sure I cover it all while I’m here.) I have felt myself pulling away from earth and experienced what little ones must experience when they are pulled away from their mamas at preschool; a true sense of anxiety and panic about being separated from what holds and supports me.
But the clouds will sometimes distract me in my despair, and I will lose myself in the wonder of them, even if for a few moments.
I had a new experience just now as I was up in the clouds between Tallahassee and Memphis, my plane changing point. As I moved up, I made a choice to let go of the earth and trust…and in that moment, I felt a clear sense of Great Father pulling me up into the sky. Yes, I said pulling me up. I don’t think the plane could have descended one bit with that magnetic pull going on.
Yes, I realize that there was not a magnet pulling up on the plane. It was so interesting and wonderful to me to feel this in my body, to feel a sense of what Great Father feels like, and for the sky to be His domain. It made me remember that some indigenous peoples say “Father Sky and Mother Earth”. Suddenly that made sense to me.
There was something in that moment that was reminiscent of my childhood, when I was so clear that God lived up in this beautiful blue and white magical place. I felt a similar sense of wonder and awe, like the door of my heart opened in an old way, and the sky returned to its place there.
