My early years were spent in the flatlands, where you can see for miles and miles without disruption. It was a place where the sun came up over a group of foothills that we lovingly called mountains and changed the sky from night to day almost immediately. Likewise, the sun set with the same efficiency under the horizon, and you could watch as it slowly disappeared until suddenly, poof, it was gone.
As a child, I had not yet developed my love of sunsets and sunrises. That would come much later. But I have always enjoyed watching the clouds.
Before a storm, you could stand in the yard and watch as the clouds – giant columns of white cumulonimbus – roiled and brewed up a batch of rain. Or maybe a tornado. If you were brave enough, you could hold your ground against the wind and wait to see if it would blow the storms your way or just past, leaving you unscathed. After all these years, I can still feel that wind on my face, fresh with the scent of rain.
At the time, being a child, I didn’t know the names of all the cloud formations. Mares tails, puffy, cotton ball cumulous, mackerel sky. And I’m sure I had no idea of what types of clouds produced what types of weather. What I did know was that clouds intrigued me. I loved their shapes.
One of my favorite pastimes back then, when I wasn’t making mud pies and torturing my poor old cat by dressing him in my doll’s clothing, was to lie on the ground and pick out shapes in the cloud formations overhead. With a good eye and a runaway imagination, a child can see all kinds of things in the ephemeral air above. A chariot drawn by wild horses. A dog running.
Even people playing and jumping. The possibilities are endless. And stories can come out of that play. What was the dog running from? A monster? Yes. Yes, there he is! No. Maybe not a monster. Perhaps it’s a dragon. Yes, a dragon blowing fire at the poor pup!
Back then, I could do this for what seemed like hours. And, the truth is, I still enjoy watching the clouds drift by, taking on different and new shapes as they pass. It is sort of like life. Things change right before our eyes. Take on new shapes. Bring new opportunities. New joys. I embrace that. I am really still just a child at heart!
Can you relate?
