Look around you

Look up, look down. Look left and right. Look far and close. Look around you. What do you see?

I was contemplating the clouds with a friend over the weekend, when we realised that the sunlight is often what makes clouds interesting to us. So often we are actually commenting on light shining through the clouds rather than the drops of water themselves. We saw the clouds because we looked up and out and they were right there in front of us. We contemplated them because it seemed the obvious thing to do with a shiraz by the water on a Friday afternoon.

The conversation reminded me of watching one of the Do Lectures session about cloudspotting for beginners. Who knew that watching clouds could be taken so seriously? Who knew most of the Do topics existed at all? That's why I am so excited to have gone.

If you look up during the day you might see clouds, and if you look up at night you might see the moon, the stars, the galaxy, the universe. The light you see from Alpha Centauri the closest star is 4 light years away, and most stars are far beyond. Now look down to your feet again. I often do this on St Kilda beach and feel the sand and shells beneath my feet, with the ocean splashing along beside them.

My shoes are from London. They were made from recycled leather in a small factory called Terra Plana. I have no idea who made them, and where the leather was recycled from. Somebody saw my order drop in from the website and someone else delivered them from a plane to my house. Many things had to happen for these shoes to arrive on my feet... and then I found myself staring into the night sky again.

This is how your awareness grows. By taking notice of what is happening around you. Yet how often do we take the time to look around? To wander down a street we haven't seen before? To stand still in a busy place. To watch what others are watching?

Where do you go? What do you see?

This note was originally written on a fresh winter night on St Kilda beach.