Cloud – Noun – 1. a visible mass of condensed water vapor floating in the atmosphere, typically high above the ground. 2. A state or cause of gloom, suspicion, trouble, or worry.
ORIGIN –Old English clūd ‘mass of rock or earth’; probably related to clot. cloud dates from Middle English.
“For a second I was almost jealous of the clouds. Why was he looking to them for an escape when I was right here beside him?” ― Kamila Shamsie
No matter what you call them. My favorite place to see them are when they are floating below me as I soar above them. My second favorite place was laying on my back in the grass as a child and staring up at them. From above or below, they are insanely beautiful and complicated.
If you are really interested in seeing your own favorite type of clouds, visit: unusualcloudformations. So many beautiful cloud formations to look at.
“I know that I shall meet my fate somewhere among the clouds above; those that I fight I do not hate, those that I guard I do not love.” ― W.B. Yeats
Nefelibata (noun) Origin: Portuguese | ne·fe·LE·ba·ta One who lives in the clouds of their own imagination; An unconventional person.
YES! I have always been inspired when I am on a plane and breaking through the clouds into the sunny blue sky. Decades later, I still feel a sense of wonder that I am actually sitting in the sky. I always choose an aisle seat because I love the freedom of standing up when I choose to and being able to move around without disturbing anyone. However, when there is no one next to me I always move to the window for the take off and the landing. It’s a magical view. The turbulence through the clouds makes my stomach jump. Not with fear or anxiety but with … I don’t even know with what. Imagination .. dreams.. wonder? I don’t know. I take about 50 photos and then just keep looking at them.
I mean it’s a sense of adventure. One day, a long time ago, someone was standing on the earth and staring at the sky. Maybe pointing out elephants, puppies, witches, etc. One day, a long time ago, someone had a dream, or a thought, or an idea. Something that made them want to fly. There are dreams about flying and about what clouds in dreams mean.
I have followed the clouds to so many great places. I have lived in my dreams, in my head, and in my imagination. I used to think it was just me that did this. However, I have talked to some folks who have admitted to me that they also live in their dreams. I don’t think I will ever stop taking pictures of clouds. Don’t get me wrong. I love the sun as much as I love clouds. But I love them each in very different ways.
I hope it is true that I will always feel this way about clouds. I think they will always amaze and distract me. Guide me. Envelope me. Push me forward. They make me dance in the rain and chase the sun. They make me feel like I felt when I was a little girl laying down in the fresh cut grass behind my house. They remind me of lazy summer days and crazy high energy storms. I love clouds.
“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.” ― Rabindranath Tagore
“Clouds in the sky very much resembles the thoughts in our minds! Both changes perpetually from one second to another!” – Mehmet Murat ildan
“I’m a dreamer. I have to dream and reach for the stars, and if I miss a star then I grab a handful of clouds.” ~Mike Tyson “For a second I was almost jealous of the clouds.” -Kamila Shamsie
Ok.. a dreamy break. Or a break from the dreaminess of clouds. A bit of a nightmare cloud picture. I am not sure if these are Parawixia Bistriata spiders, but when you are walking under them does it matter?
The Parawixia Bistriata spiders have actually created such a massive intertwined web that it appears as if they’re raining down from the sky because they’ve taken over so much of the air space and it looks as if they’re floating down. … They build these cloud-sized spiderwebs which trap prey in the air.
“When you’re a kid, you lay in the grass and watch the clouds going over, and you literally don’t have a thought in your mind. It’s purely meditation, and we lose that.” ~ Dick Van Dyke
“It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are… than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise. ~Henry David Thoreau
“Behind every cloud is another cloud.” ~-Judy Garland
“I don’t know what my formula is. I only know I like my characters to walk in clouds. I like a little bit of the fairy tale. Let others photograph the ugliness of the world. I don’t want to distress people.” ~ Leo McCarey
“Aren’t the clouds beautiful? They look like big balls of cotton… I could just lie here all day, and watch them drift by… If you use your imagination, you can see lots of things in the cloud formations… What do you think you see, Linus?” “Well, those clouds up there look like the map of the British Honduras on the Caribbean… That cloud up there looks a little like the profile of Thomas Eakins, the famous painter and sculptor… And that group of clouds over there gives me the impression of the stoning of Stephen… I can see the apostle Paul standing there to one side…” “Uh huh… That’s very good… What do you see in the clouds, Charlie Brown?” “Well, I was going to say I saw a ducky and a horsie, but I changed my mind!” ― Charles M. Schulz, The Complete Peanuts, Vol. 5: 1959-1960
Sehnsucht: (noun) Origin: German |An intense yearning for something far-off and indefinable.
ETYMOLOGY: From German words sehnen (to long) and Sucht (anxiety; sickness; addiction).
“There is a German word, Sehnsucht, which has no English equivalent; it means ‘the longing for something’. It has Romantic and mystical connotations; C.S. Lewis defined it as the ‘inconsolable longing’ in the human heart for ‘we know not what’. It seems rather German to be able to specify the unspecifiable. The longing for something – or, in our case, for someone.”
― Julian Barnes
“The greatest forces lie in the region of the uncomprehended.”
― George MacDonald
“Who then is to judge what is good, true, and beautiful? You are. Plato says it is the soul: the proper dimensions and proportions are already stored in our minds, and when we recognize the good, true, and beautiful– how is it that we do it? It is by anamnesis, the act of recalling what we have seen somewhere before. You must have received an impression of what is right somewhere else, because you recognize it instantly; you don’t have to have it analyzed; you don’t have to say, “That is beautiful,” or “That is ugly”; you welcome it as an old acquaintance. We recognize what is lovely because we have seen it somewhere else, and as we walk through the world, we are constantly on the watch for it with a kind of nostalgia, so that when we see an object or a person that pleases us, it is like recognizing an old friend.”
― Hugh Nibley
When I was a very little girl, my favorite types of books to read were books that detailed young adventurers. It didn’t matter the era, the genre, or the sex of the youth. The common theme was someone who was between the age of 10-18 who for some reason set off on an adventure. Maybe they were stuck in the wilderness and survived. Maybe they were heading west with the pioneers. Maybe they were entering a time portal or sailing across the ocean by themselves or on a ship full of other adventurers. Maybe they were escaping some calamity. It didn’t matter. These young adventurers were smart, capable, and full of hope. Books and images still light that flame of adventure in me.
I once tried to sign up to take flying lessons when I was way too young to do this sort of thing without parental approval. The old Spokane Airport had a program for youth to partner with an older pilot to learn to fly a plane. It was a huge dream of mine to be able to just jump in my own plane (or a stolen one, or a left behind one, or… well you get the idea.)
I have traveled far and wide and am amazed at the things I have seen and the things I have been able to do. On a recent trip home, my sister and I went to eat at the old Spokane Airport diner, The Skyway Cafe.. As I sat there eating and looking around at the model airplanes hanging from the ceiling, the pictures on the walls, the old airplanes outside the window, the blue skies, and lazy clouds floating by, it dawned on me .. no it hit me. I am still that child. The sense of adventure swelled and I wondered where would I go next. What would I be doing? Who would I meet? What would I be eating and drinking?
You need not even listen, just wait…the world will offer itself freely to you, unmasking itself. – Franz Kafka
We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open. – Jawaharial Nehru
The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper. – W.B. Yeats
Living on Earth is expensive, but it does include a free trip around the sun every year. – Unknown
It doesn’t matter where you are. You are nowhere compared to where you can go. – Bob Proctor
It is probably a pity that every citizen of each state cannot visit all the others, to see the differences, to learn what we have in common, and come back with a richer, fuller understanding of America – in all its beauty, in all its dignity, in all its strength, in support of moral principles. – Dwight D. Eisenhower
The Moment
Poem by Margaret Atwood
The moment when, after many years
of hard work and a long voyage
you stand in the centre of your room,
house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,
knowing at last how you got there,
and say, I own this,
is the same moment when the trees unloose
their soft arms from around you,
the birds take back their language,
the cliffs fissure and collapse,
the air moves back from you like a wave
and you can’t breathe.
No, they whisper. You own nothing.
You were a visitor, time after time
climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.
We never belonged to you.
You never found us.
It was always the other way round.
Clouds will remain for me one of the most comforting things to behold and possibly the best form of escapism around. I have always been fascinated by clouds. I don’t know many people who haven’t stared into the sky trying to figure out what shapes could be found. They are ever changing, and always interesting. They are visually amazing, sometimes to the point of being heart-stopping. They are dependable. They have been everywhere I have been and they will be everywhere I go. In tribute — I present to you – – my favorite photos of clouds from all over the world- mixed up with a children’s story I would use with my 1st and 2nd graders in California. Enjoy.
One hot summer morning a little Cloud rose out of the sea and floated lightly and happily across the blue sky. Far below lay the earth, brown, dry, and desolate, from drought. The little Cloud could see the poor people of the earth working and suffering in the hot fields, while she herself floated on the morning breeze, hither and thither, without a care.
“Oh, if I could only help the poor people down there!” she thought. “If I could but make their work easier, or give the hungry ones food, or the thirsty a drink!”
And as the day passed, and the Cloud became larger, this wish to do something for the people of earth was ever greater in her heart.
On earth it grew hotter and hotter; the sun burned down so fiercely that the people were fainting in its rays; it seemed as if they must die of heat, and yet they were obliged to go on with their work, for they were very poor. Sometimes they stood and looked up at the Cloud, as if they were praying, and saying, “Ah, if you could help us!”
“I will help you; I will!” said the Cloud. And she began to sink softly down toward the earth.
But suddenly, as she floated down, she remembered something which had been told her when she was a tiny Cloud child, in the lap of Mother Ocean: it had been whispered that if the Clouds go too near the earth they die. When she remembered this she held herself from sinking, and swayed here and there on the breeze, thinking, thinking. But at last she stood quite still, and spoke boldly and proudly. She said, “Men of earth, I will help you, come what may!”
The thought made her suddenly marvelously big and strong and powerful. Never had she dreamed that she could be so big. Like a mighty angel of blessing she stood above the earth, and lifted her head and spread her wings far over the fields and woods. She was so great, so majestic, that men and animals were awestruck at the sight; the trees and the grasses bowed before her; yet all the earth creatures felt that she meant them well.
“Yes, I will help you,” cried the Cloud once more. “Take me to yourselves; I will give my life for you!”
As she said the words a wonderful light glowed from her heart, the sound of thunder rolled through the sky, and a love greater than words can tell filled the Cloud; down, down, close to the earth she swept, and gave up her life in a blessed, healing shower of rain.
That rain was the Cloud’s great deed; it was her death, too; but it was also her glory. Over the whole countryside, as far as the rain fell, a lovely rainbow sprang its arch, and all the brightest rays of heaven made its colors; it was the last greeting of a love so great that it sacrificed itself.
Soon that, too, was gone, but long, long afterward the men and animals who were saved by the Cloud kept her blessing in their hearts.
“It is better to have your head in the clouds, and know where you are… than to breathe the clearer atmosphere below them, and think that you are in paradise. ~Henry David Thoreau
rfljenksy - Practicing Simplicity 