Sky Before Screen

An easy (right?) morning ritual. Plus The Heard

In an interview on the radio show and podcast Choose To Be Curious (I’m a fan), writer/speaker/meditator Menka Sanghvi described a regular ritual that she referred to as “skies before screens,” summarizing it like so:

Every morning, before you look at your screen, just make it a rule that you’re going to see the sky.

She attributed this to “fellow wonderstruck, curious human being” Sophie Howarth, who in turn was inspired by the late poet (and patron saint of attention) Mary Oliver. Here’s a bit from an Instagram post by Howarth:

[Oliver] was a devotedly early morning person who greeted every new day by standing under the sky, notebook in hand and heart open to whatever might present itself. So many poets know the morning has a special creative quality not to be squandered by diving straight into a screen. This week [Howarth and her students in a class about Oliver] are making “sky before screen” a creative challenge for 7 days.

_sophiehowarth

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