Clouds

When Washington turns steamy, as it has this week, my workout turns to swimming laps, instead of walking, biking, or running. I put in my 35 minutes today, and then, as I often do, fell onto a lounge chair to dry off and read a bit before heading indoors again.

As usual, the air that had been stifling 40 minutes earlier was quite pleasant when I am dripping wet. When I finished my magazine, I lay back and looked upward. What I saw nearly took my breath away with its beauty: cobalt skies generously clouded with puffy white and light gray clouds.  My first thought was: is the sky this beautiful all the time, and I've been so nose-down that I've forgetten to look up?

As I lay there, the movement of the clouds was both mesmerizing and tranquilizing. A thicker layer of lower clouds parted occasionally to reveal whispier, higher ones. I have no idea what the distance between them was--maybe 50 feet, maybe 500, maybe more. They held their own mystery.

The heavier, lower ones appeared to be moving north while the whispier, higher ones were moving southward. I don't think that is possible, but that is how it looked. As I contemplated their mysteries, I became consciously aware that I was totally relaxed. What a rich feeling--relaxed and conscious of it.

My eyes drifted shut, and I relished the relaxation. When I opened my eyes again, the heavier clouds had disappeared, leaving a sea of cobalt, simply decorated by what appeared to be 1,000 dandelions gone to seed and sent scattering by a giant puff from a mysterious source.  I've been here for awhile now, alternating between watching and closing my eyes. Each time I open them, a new skyscape awaits.

I like to think I am pretty good about observing beauty in the natural world about me, but this afternoon I've decided that I don't look up nearly enough.

Sometimes in the midst of the crazy pace of my daily work world, I sneak off for 10 minutes to the patio in the roof of our office building: it always relaxes me, but I think I've almost never looked up at the clouds. Today I believe they might be nature's antidote to the chaotic world in which I find myself. I feel a bit wicked to have discovered such a decadent secret, which I can use at my choosing to mellow out. And, I will, grateful once again for all the gifts that are ours for the choosing.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone