Looking up

                                     Anyone ever look up at the sky and think about how fortunate we are to be here? By here, I mean on this earth and not dead. I never used to do that. I would just go about my day to day , mundane activities without ever looking up, or noticing what the sky looked like. it was just a backdrop to my life, as I am sure it is in most people's.
                                      A few months after my mother's death I would go outside in the morning to get the paper, or start the car and I would stop. I would look up, and notice a sunrise, or certain shapes of clouds and wonder why I never looked before. Did my mother get the chance to look? Or had she, like myself, been so wrapped up in her own day to day that she never noticed. It sounds silly, especially in our busy hectic lives. I mean its a sky, its there everyday . I am not even sure why it is I started to look up, except for maybe I was trying to communicate with my mother in some way, and we as a society tend to believe the deceased are above us. I think that is how i started appreciating the sky and its enveloping beauty, i was trying to feel closer to where she was(or at least where I hoped she was).
                                     It has been 6 and a half years since she passed away, and I try to regularly look at the sky and appreciate the beauty of it. sometimes it's gray and bleak, and funny thing is , that usually affects our moods.Other times it is bright blue, clear, and sunny thus creating a more lighter, hopeful mood. Whatever the color or look of the sky, I have learned to be grateful that it is there and I am able to appreciate it's presence. I regularly point it out to my 3 children, and tell themhow pretty it is.This way they will never have to wonder if their mother took the time to look up ...