Clouds

Clouds

 I write this blog sitting on our patio this warm summer afternoon. The perennials are in full bloom and I feel like I am in the middle of my own Garden of Eden. What catches my eye are the large cloud formations sailing across the brilliant blue sky. They stop and hang over the Bridger Mountains like a spattering of whip cream.

Big Sky country provides an unparalleled 360-degree view. Because there are no obstructions, I see cloud formations building up miles away. The Cumulus clouds that look like large cotton balls that can turn into Cumulonimbus Clouds that reach 45,000 feet. The Stratus clouds gather over the Bridgers like a pall after a cool rain.

Clouds remain a mystery to me. They bring rain, lightening and snow. From the ground they look sturdy but when I fly through them they are a fine mist. They take all kinds of shapes. I remember as a child lying on the grass looking up and imaging their different shapes and faces.

Gazing at these floating islands in the sky, I am reminded of a verse from a Joni Mitchell song of the 1960’s Both Sides Now:

“Rows and rows of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air and feather canyons everywhere, I've looked at clouds that way. But now they only block the sun, they rain and they snow on everyone, so many things I would have done, but clouds got in my way. I've looked at clouds from both sides now, from up and down and still somehow it's cloud illusions I recall, I really don't know clouds at all…”

Sky and life would be incomplete without the clouds.