Look, look, he thought,
how God has drawn the sky with light. Light was laced among the willows; it set
a brightness like fire upon the grass, and it rose and floated like smoke. It
defined clouds in the sky, and it radiated from the clouds like fractures in
glass, like spiderwebs. And suddenly he knew how small he was, how little he
mattered in the laughter of God, not at all, really. He knew at once that this
moment, the blink of an eye, held more beauty and wonder than he could know. He
had not enough life to deal with it. He could only suffer the least part of it;
he could only open his eyes and see what he could see of the world. And again
he laughed together with God. And he thought, wait a moment, God. God give me a
moment. I have a moment, and it is too big for me, and I cannot hold it in my
little hands. And you, God, you give me the night and the world. It is a good
joke, and, God, we laugh. But I have seen how you draw the sky with light.
Photograph by Father Emmanuel. Lines from Names: A Memoir by N
Scott Momaday.