Postcard #1: Head in the Clouds
I remember the first time I touched clouds, like, really actually totally for sure yes touched some clouds:
I was… “hiking”…
(OK, walking while wheezing, trying not to collapse from the unexpected afternoon heat and humidity swell)…
…when I got to the top of a mountain covered in rhododendrons.
(Giant pink flower bushes that cover the high elevations nearby me in June).
And I could see the clouds begin to roll in from a storm building in the distance. So, I stopped and waited.
Now, I was a full-grown adult. Not a little kid.
I knew in my head they wouldn’t be fluffy cotton, but somewhere in the deep recesses of the illogical part of my mind, I still hoped they might be fluffy cotton, like floating kittens in the sky nuzzling as they sail past.
No such luck. Like getting hit in the face with thick wet fog from the foggiest bathroom shower imaginable.
Still, it felt neat to reach out and touch bits of clouds. Those big things in the sky that pass like starships overhead, casting one’s entire street into shadow until it moves on again, yeah — those big things, were now in the palms of my hands.
You can reach out and hold bits of giant clouds in the palms of your hands.
You can reach down and pick up parts of the giant mountaintop between your fingers.
Things in life are more accessible and graspable than we realize.
And they may not all be as awesome as flying kittens, but they’re still pretty cool.
Keep hiking.