Rachel Suzanne Tien Wood: When The Sky Aligns #1/5

I took this photograph during a road trip around New Zealand, at a point in my life when almost nothing felt settled.
I had just cut off contact with my family. I felt raw and confused about my entire life. I was down to my last $200, I had no clear plan for what came next, and every night I was sleeping in the back of a car on a little bed I had made for myself.
What I did have was a vague dream of finding some peace somewhere beautiful, and the hope that moving forward would eventually start to feel like healing.
I hadn’t driven there for a photograph. I had simply found a place on the coast where I could legally sleep for the night. Then the sky changed. The sun, the clouds, the waves and the horizon all seemed to fall into place at once.
It was beautiful, and because I hadn’t gone looking for it, it felt different. Like the world met me where I was.
That is why I called this piece When The Sky Aligns.
I often say that you don’t get proof that you are making the right choice. You make the choice, and then you do your best to make it work. But every once in a while, nature reminds you that most of life is outside your control anyway, and somehow that can be comforting.
A place to sleep. A bit of light. A horizon beautiful enough to make you stop thinking about everything that hurts.
I needed that evening more than I realized.
I knew, somewhere underneath all the fear and uncertainty, that eventually I would be okay. But for a few minutes, everything in front of me felt in harmony even when I wasn’t.
I didn’t know where I was going. I only knew that I had left something behind that I could no longer go back to.
So I kept driving.
And every once in a while, the sky aligned, and I kept going.