Photo: L. Weikel

Enjoy the Clouds

Some evenings I sit here and struggle to come up with a topic that might be even remotely interesting for you to read. And sometimes the best I can come up with is to suggest that we all just enjoy the clouds.

Tonight, for instance, I thought of a handful of subjects that have been running around in my brain like squirrels being chased by Spartacus, but decided, for one reason or another, were not places I really wanted to ‘go.’ It feels like the only way we can avoid absolutely every day being a challenge to our equilibrium is to almost become hermit-like. And that’s darn near impossible for most of us.

Sometimes, as you well know, I can’t keep my passions under wraps, particularly if I’ve been watching tv (like I will be tomorrow night, watching the last debate before a large swath of our country weighs in on who will be the Democratic nominee for president). And while I know it’s ok for me to ‘let it rip’ on whatever I choose, I do try to be mindful of the diversity of my readers and refrain from poking my stick into too many eyes (at least not that often).

Photo: L. Weikel

Look Up

I’ve been lucky enough to have a chance to walk a lot this winter. I’m not loving the mildness of the weather this winter, but it has made walking every night at least somewhat less of a hassle. Especially over the past three days, it’s been easy to average a bit over 4 miles each day.

Tonight’s walk, though, just begged us to “Look up!” At first, the sun simply looked particularly exotic as it started sinking in the west, rays bouncing off and squinting out from behind clouds. But later, those same clouds took on some fascinating and varied shapes all within the same small area of sky.

Without doubt, the performance by the cloud brigade as our walk approached its last stages this evening left Karl and me in silent appreciation of just how lucky we are in so many ways.

I even fancied seeing wings in the clouds. I’ll admit it; the simple beauty of these meteorological wonders lightened the load on my heart.

Wings – Photo: L. Weikel

So I offer them to you. Because that’s the tone I wish to set at this new moon: An intention to look up, witness the natural beauty that surrounds us, and smile at the hints that, despite appearances, we must make the effort to enjoy the clouds – and hold on to our hope.

February sunset – Photo: L. Weikel

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