Afternoon Delight

There are days when when thoughts fill my Saturday afternoon walks in the campus, and there are days when a rich emptiness fills my walking experience. There's emptiness in the sense that  reflections don't come pouring in. Yet, there's richness in this emptiness as the images presented by the natural environment fill me with a deep sense of at-homeness and connection with nature. During such times, I simply take in the beauty in the ordinariness surrounding me. This particular Saturday weeks ago was one such afternoon. 

Clouds look like a masterpiece from an unknown artist's unseen palette. The child in me delights in simply looking at the clouds, watching as images change over a few minutes as the shapes and colors change.  One time it's just all grey; the next,hues of orange come to play, changing the picture altogether. A masterpiece that's a work in progress is what the sky is. Just like each of us. 

Oftentimes, I look at the clouds and see images as one would in Rorschach inkblots - a scared dragon, a T-rex ready to attack a meal-turned-predator, a young woman dancing flamenco with an elephant, a child and a dragon looking each other in the eye as they try to ascertain whether the other is friend or fiend. I take off my psychologist hat and veer away from analyzing what my unconscious reveals in the images I see. I take delight in the  endless possibilities that the sky and clouds present and remind myself of the many possibilities in my own life, no matter how stuck I sometimes feel or seemingly hopeless certain situations are. 

Clouds don't only move. They speak, too.