Majestically they soar about the earth. At times they look threatening. Other times, when their partner is the sun we see the beauty of their form and sometime color. They look so strong and solid. Powerful thunderstorms, hurricanes, and tornadoes are born within and around them.
When traveling on a plane though, they seem so weak and deceiving. They appear as being filled with nothing as an airplane travels through them. How can we be so wrong when looking at them from the ground?
Life in many ways mirror these same characteristics. The lives of others look so formidable and majestic from afar. We try to convince ourselves that our own lives have substance. Look at our house, our car, our jobs, and our friends we tell ourselves.
What we forget, most times, is just how fragile our lives really are. To keep our lives whole, filled with substance, meaning and made solid by the love we chose to share uncontrollably with others takes our effort and attention over a lifetime.
Setbacks, health issues, tragic events, children issues, financial struggles, age issues, relationship issues……..the ebb and flow of life that without warning challenges us at different times through our lives.
From the ground, clouds give us the illusion of strength and substance. That is how our perceptions trick us when we look at other people’s lives. We are too far to see how fragile they really are. We are too far and can’t help but come to wrong conclusions just like we are misled when looking up at the sky to see the clouds.
When waking up and looking at the morning sky we must make the clouds our reminder that our work has not ended, our presence is still needed, and our effort can never subside for it takes the work of a lifetime to “keep our lives together” so that they have meaning and substance.
And then, when boarding an airplane for a vacation (a simple break from our daily lives) we should always remember of how fragile our lives (as well of those of others) are while we travel through those same clouds.