One of the attractions of California life is near-perfect weather pretty much all year long. Don't get me wrong...clear, cloudless skies and abundant sunshine are great. But this weekend has brought some much needed rain, and along with it, interesting cloud formations.
Clouds get a bum rap in our sunny world. They bring rain, sleet, or snow that makes driving a mess on already too congested roads. Even if no precipitation falls, they block the sun and change the color of the sky from blue to shades of gray. In literature, clouds signal foreboding, warning of difficulties around the bend.
But clouds also give dimension and depth to the landscape. If you've ever spent time staring into a cloudless sky, it actually starts to look a little flat, too one dimensional. Clouds help us conceptualize how vast the sky really is, how high the sun or the moon hang in the sky. They illustrate how small and close to the ground we are, tiny specks in the vast importance of the universe.
Who doesn't miss the simple joy of a childhood spent lying on your back on the lawn of your house, staring at clouds until they turned into shapes....a limitless universe of bouncing rabbits and running dogs. Those clouds ignited our imagination, helped us look at simple objects in a different light and see the possibilities they contained.
In that respect, I think clouds have a lot to teach us. In a world where we often blindly accept only the obvious appearance of things around us, or allow others to interpret their meaning, clouds can teach us to explore our own perceptions, question what we see, and consider new possibilities in everything we experience.
I hope they stick around for a while. Now I'm off to find an observation spot in the yard...
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