Look Deeply

I loved to learn about words and how to use them in a sentence when I was in school. 

English was a class that taught me to look deeply at what each one could mean at that time. 

This is when I also learned that some words could have more than one meaning. 

Come with me as we go into what else looking deeply can bring to you and me. 

During my early years, I stared at the stars at night with cousins and studied earnestly about other topics. 

At times this looked like laying in the long grass behind a yellow stucco home as the lights popped out after the sun went down. 

The grass needed to be stomped down with sneakers, so the rough stickers stayed down. 

This was how we waited for the stars. 

If only I could look deeply enough.

Staring into space for the big dipper, little bear and north star came next.

It was as if the sky told us to be quietly aware of what could be seen if only I could look deeply enough. 

Studying earnestly became a space that was expansive like the stars above. 

I opened books about trees, flowers and bugs. Examples were gathered of leaves after walking through miles on a university campus. 

First, I would look up at the canopy of a tree, identify the leaf, gather it up and smash it into a large book to wait. 

When the leaf was ready, I would place them in a book then get ready for a display. 

There were other topics I studied, and I wondered about at first. 

I found that looking at a variety of things, such as a gold gorilla, brought a smile and a deep gaze. 

Fun can be found when a pause comes with the space around us. 

Was it possible? 

I wonder if there is a way to look at other meanings of the words that I learned about in my younger years. 

The beginnings had some and now it was time to go deeper.

What else was there to know after looking into the expanse of space? 

This came to me years after the grass was stomped down. 

I looked deeply into the eyes of a truly wonderful soul.

It was later that I looked deeply into the eyes of a truly wonderful soul. He was one I admired greatly for the delight he brought to the world. 

Perhaps you know someone like I did. 

A person who did the impossible while teaching you how to look deeply into one more thing. 

I have learned to look at this way as well. 

While I find that there are moments of grief that come now, I have learned to sit with the joy that came with every day of learning. 

I have eyed lovingly what is around me after the many days of learning from looking deeply into the eyes of that person. 

Then I came to this thought.

If I could look deeply into the stars and my studies along with the eyes of one who I love, could I also do this with other things? 

I recently sat with this as I watched the sun come up in the morning. 

Gazing into the unknown space is what I can do as I observe new spaces that come.

Wondering, sitting with it, and learning about what can come. 

This is what I now know. It’s what we can do with fun together.