Keep Looking Up

August 11, 2022 in orange desk

photo of blue sky with a cloud appear as the word "IF"

I sat under a large tree today at a picnic table, and sent out a writing prompt to the hundreds of people who subscribe to receive a writing prompt every Monday through Friday morning from me. Today’s prompt involved looking at clouds and then writing what you saw. So, I looked up into the deep blue overhead at the barn where Feliks was riding his horse.

And there, in the sky, was the word, “IF.” (Middle, sideways)

I snapped a photo.

IF.

Such a powerful word to be so short.

What if.

I wonder if.

Tell me if.

What would happen if.

It feels powerful and full of a potential wound tight like a spring, and not yet sprung. And it feels like a deflection as well, if we sit around wondering what if rather than living the what is.

I sat there, wondering. I remembered the poem, “If,” by Rudyard Kipling. I toyed with writing my own.

What IF I wrote a poem.

We veer away from the “if” sometimes, when walking into it might give us more aliveness, more potential, more possibility. Perhaps you can finish these sentences and find some meaning in your own answers:

What if I _________________________.
I wonder if _______________________.
Tell me if you _____________________.
What would happen if ______________.

Then I remembered a very short poem in Louis Sachar’s book, Holes:

“If only, if only,” the woodpecker sighs,

The bark of the tree was as soft as the skies.

The wolf sits below, hungry and lonely.

He cries to the moon,”If only, if only.”

Here’s my one minute poem. I wonder what would happen if I finished it.

If you were able to speak exactly what moves you to tears, maybe the liquid would dry up in the heat of your words. Maybe it’s better not to say.

If you could be in two places at one time, you would not be fully present in either. Maybe it’s better just to stay, or go, but not stay and go.

What does IF look like for you? What IF the clouds were speaking to us all today?

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.