Clouds

A strange thing has happened in the last couple years. Well, one of many strange things — I’ve become perplexingly fascinated with clouds.

Driving to work last week, at every red traffic light, I tried to capture a shot of the sky with my camera. Why are traffic lights never red long when you want them to be?

More amazing to me was that no one else was doing the same thing. They stared straight ahead, unseeing, busy talking on their cell phones.

Variations in cloud patterns catch my attention and hold it.

The wispy ones.
The softballs.
The dark menacing blobs.
Just when I think I must certainly have seen every cloud type there is, another one jumps out at me.
The light or lack of light creates a color wheel of backdrops.
I stare and watch the heavens change before my eyes. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow, depending on the whims of the wind.

My camera often does funny things with the photos — lines are blurred, colors changed. The camera lens sees things differently than I do. Never quite managing to capture the intensity.

It all plays together — the clouds, the light, the sky, the wind. Even the seasons make a difference. It’s a symphony, an endless variety of major and minor chords. A work of art — sometimes a beautiful Monet, other times something from Francis Bacon.

It occurs to me that rather than writing about clouds, I could be writing about people and how life can play us like a grand piano or a guitar with broken strings.

Like a cloud, we can be changed by light (love) shining on us, or by the withdrawal of that light. We can be blown in different directions. We can sometimes feel heavy and dark, or we can feel insubstantial, barely visible and sometimes not there at all.

Maybe if we get out of the way, let go of our expectations and egos, the sun will shine through.

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9 Comments

  1. Lovely lovely post! I too love cloudbusting and watching the skies change – sometimes they reflect my mood, and sometimes they just take my breath away.

    Gorgeous photos!

  2. It is amazing the different moods the clouds set. As a child I used to just lay on the ground and watch the sky. I think I need to do that again with camera in hand.

    This was just a beautiful post sweetie, all the way around.

    Enjoy your day and may it be filled with heavenly blessings!!! :o)

  3. Cool post Maery! It’s interesting how art is all around us if we have the inclination to see it or better yet, appreciate it. Your analogy of clouds being like life is true and I hadn’t ever thought of that. Maybe it helps to remind us that when we see an ominous looking cloud formation we can tell ourselves, “This too shall pass.” I think it’s a fine thing that you are looking up, rather than down or back 🙂 Thanks for your wonderful musings! Kathleen

  4. Cute headers picture!

    I am a cloud person, too. The window to the office in my home faces east and I have the most awesome sunrises coming in from that window and when the days have clouds, the colors are incredible.

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