Don't Worry! It Is Just A Cloud! Maybe?

   It is strange how we sometimes look at things and see beauty then can see something entirely different when we try to look back at the same object.  Just yesterday, the clouds in late afternoon sky appeared to frame the hidden sun in a perfect manner.  I spent several minutes photographing the clouds as I was enthralled by what was set before me.  The magnificent view was enough to leave me spellbound for a good ten minutes until the wind shifted and sent my lovely vision askew.  Nothing could prepare me for the photographs that I viewed today.  What popped out at me was not what I saw yesterday....not at all.

  In the photographs, I found a face with deep set, hollow eyes and a rather horrified looking grimace of a mouth.  What?  This was not what I saw at all!  Thinking perhaps it was just a quirky incident, I looked at the other photographs...yep, just the same.  That face was still staring at me as if it was trying to tell me of some terrifying incident that was to come.  Do the clouds know something?  Are they harbingers of what is to come with the pending storms potentially heading our way? Should I be worried?  

  Life has a way of making some of us ponder things far too deeply.  I can live for the moment in most circumstances but, occasionally, I get a gut feeling that usually bears truth.  These clouds, however, are just that...clouds.  

Cloud Windows

  Years ago, my aunt told me that whenever I saw a hole in the clouds, it was a window from Heaven.  "Whenever you see a hole like that, wave hello to your grandmother because surely she is looking down from Heaven to check on you!"  For the longest time, I did wave at the sky.  Hopefully, my grandmother saw me waving at her since I missed her terribly.  Then, later, someone mentioned that the hole in the clouds was a stairway to Heaven.  With that, I searched for stairs leading up to the sky but never found them so I went back to waving.  If I could not climb stairs to visit Grandmother, I would have to resort to the old method of sending my hello.

  The other day, I was on the pier when I noticed the sun gleaming through the clouds in one particular spot.  The dark clouds around the bright spot were ominous.  Rain threatened at any moment but all I could think about was my parents, grandparents and all the other folks in my life that had passed.  It has been decades and decades since my aunt made mention of the cloud holes but I have never forgotten her simple message.  It was not about waving, visiting or missing folks.  It is about keeping memories alive.  That is good enough for me....but...just in case Grandmother was peering through that hole, I gave a little wave.