Why the Sky Went Up

Why the Sky Went Up

Long, long ago, when the world was still young, the sky hung very low over the earth.

Not like today, when you can tilt your head back and gaze high above. Back then, it seemed that if you reached up, your palm would touch the sky.

At first, people rather liked it.

“Look how close it is!” the children said.

But they soon discovered that living beneath such a low sky was uncomfortable.

Tall people had to stoop all the time. If someone carried a bundle of branches on their shoulder, they had to walk bent over. No one could toss a ball high or lift a basket above their head. Even the birds had too little room to spread their wings properly.

And the low sky made everyday work hardest of all.

In those days, there lived a wise woman named Tuglibung. One morning she took some rice and began pounding it in a large mortar.

Thump!

The pestle bumped into the sky.

Tuglibung bent lower and tried again.

Thump!

The sky again.

“Oh dear,” she said. “How am I supposed to work?”

She knelt down and tried again.

Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

But her back soon grew tired.

Tuglibung stood up as straight as she could beneath the low sky, looked up, and said:

“Sky, rise a little higher! Can’t you see how cramped it is down here?”

And a wonder happened.

The sky slowly began to rise.

At first, only a little.

The people looked around in surprise.

“Oh! Now we can stand up straighter!”

The children immediately lifted their hands.

The birds flapped their wings and made a wider circle above the trees.

Tuglibung picked up the pestle again.

Thump!

This time it did not touch the sky.

“That’s better,” she said. “But a little more room would help us. Rise higher!”

The sky listened a second time.

It floated upward like a vast blue cloth being spread over the world by invisible hands.

The Sun rose with it. It ended up high above, where it could light the earth without hanging right over people’s heads.

Suddenly, the world was different.

People straightened their backs.

Trees stretched their branches upward.

Birds flew higher.

There was so much space between earth and sky that it was enough for the wind, for clouds, and for a rainbow after the rain.

Tuglibung calmly returned to her mortar.

Thump-thump.

Now the pestle rose freely.

“That’s just right,” she said.

They say that ever since then, the sky has never come down to earth again.

It stayed high above, so people could walk at full height, trees could grow, and birds had room to fly.

And when someone looks up and wonders why there is such a great distance between earth and sky, an old Bagobo tale gives a simple answer:

Once, the sky was very close.

Then a woman asked it to rise, because she needed room to pound her rice.

And the sky listened.

May this story leave a little light in your heart ✨