The Silver Lining

CLOUDS CLOUDS CLOUDS!!!


i LOVE clouds. They are beautiful, magical, mysterious, inviting, comforting, peaceful, full of life, and even sometimes a little intimidating. We have been soooo spoiled for the last two weeks!! Has anyone else noticed that it's the middle of June and we are still in the 80's?? Have you also noticed that we have had cloudy skies for 16, count them... that's 16 DAYS straight? What is this bizarre trend that I love so much?! I think living here it's so easy to overlook the good weather days in fear of the impending misery of heat that usually has hit by now. I'm sure once these clouds move on the heat will be on us in full force, but I've been so grateful for the unexpected break.

I remember as a little girl just lying on my front lawn, sometimes freshly mowed, sometimes still damp from the early morning sprinklers, but always as soft as a summer blanket and smelling like... well, summer. Don't you just love the smell of grass? I miss that so much. I miss lying on the grass and eating popsicles and watching those beautiful clouds dance across the sky, always taking on distinct shapes and telling a story before they disappeared over the mountainous horizon. To witness them cross over the mountaintop created a strange feeling, like the mountains were moving closer and closer to me... few things have made me feel so little and insignificant. Oh how I miss those great and grand mountains... MY MOUNTAINS...

It's funny that when I take a trip back to my parents house it just doesn't feel like home anymore... but when I see those mountains it all comes rushing back. They were there every morning I woke up, every time I looked out my window, they were the backdrop to every drive home, every walk to church with my dad, every hike, every soul searching drive through her canyons. They are a part of me, and I a part of them. As is anything else that has my childhood splattered all over it. For instance the road in front of my house that would burn my bare feet, the neighbors bushes that were the perfect hiding spot when we played night games like "Kick the Can" or "Sardines". The street light up the road where many teenage nights were spent talking and laughing and figuring life out, the big walnut tree that every fall displayed the most amazing dance of tumbling leaves after the first frost had snipped them from their branches. But mostly I miss my mountains.

I think that God created these simple things knowing the anchor they would become for us.