How much more our beliefs,
attitudes, and perceptions dictate our emotions, but weather can really get people down. A gray day can drag
our mood down, or sunshine can lift our spirits.
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| Photo taken by my sister-in-law, Cindy Basham. |
Having spent the past few winters in sunny Southwest Florida,
I marvel at how easily folks there get blessed by sunshine all winter long.
Michigan winters are notoriously gray. It may be more the lack of sunshine that
affects folks even more than the cold or snow.
My musings on weather and moods, and a writing prompt photo inspired three differently styled poems. Enjoy "Three Variations on Clouds Hanging Overhead" I wrote in February 2014.
Clouds hang overhead, hijacking the
horizon as far as the naked eye can see. The reflection of these clouds in the
still waters below creates the illusion of clouds being everywhere. How like
problems, these pesky clouds. Feeling low, mental clouds seem to span the
distance from past to present to future—dimming the light of possibility almost
to the point of nonexistence.
Carrying sufficient moisture to
dampen all but the heartiest of souls, problem clouds of troubled memories
choke out the azure blue of present life. “Why did you do THAT? What makes you
believe YOU are worthy of love? See, we knew you would fail.”
Toxic habits of shame slide into the
human body unnoticed: slinking past adoration, forgoing appreciation, and
leaving behind a massive, putrid, vapor of regret spread wider than the
contrails obediently following behind jet planes carrying people hither and
yon.
Father Sky opens wide to clouds.
Billowy blankets of white on a sunny day, and even stormy fists of green and
black and gray. Lakes smooth the way, providing a willing vessel for these
clouds’ illusions to rest a while. The nature of our nature is to embrace all
that is passing away and coming to be.
Coming to be free from shame. The
sun will shine again.
Coming to be free from self-doubt.
The clouds will not always be out.
Coming to be free from the shackles
of prisons made of what ifs or buts…
Rising above all illusions,
reflecting only colors. Colors born of water drawn up from the face of our
beloved Mother Earth as infant particles of dust.
From dust we come; and to dust we
return.
Clouds fill the sky, but need not
bring tear to eye.
Someday, you will look back on all
this and laugh.
Why wait?
Haiku
Clouds over Lake Champlain
Will these clouds drench us with
rain?
Even while the sun shines
Let clouds fill the sky
Only once—without the why
Let them drift on by
Smile, and feel relief
Why give freely to a thief?
Illusions steal joy
And the last one:
Sitting by the lake, looking out
over the placid water, I could see only clouds. The sky was filled with grey
clouds tinged with white cottony edges. Looking down, looking up, glancing left
and glancing right—as far as I could see: clouds.
Perusing the scene before me, it
popped into my mind how much life’s problems are just like these clouds. The
emotion of a current challenge can reflect onto the surface of those smooth
areas of our life robbing us of creativity and inspiration and joy!
Looking only at what has or might go
wrong is like seeing those clouds reflected in the water and letting the
illusion convince us that the situation is hopeless or we are a failure or
unworthy of well-being.
Once you take on as the vital truth
of you, the nature of nature, you can watch emotions’ clouds drift across the
sky knowing that they too shall pass. This is the nature of true freedom: “Only
one life, ‘twill soon be past. Only what’s done for Christ will last.”
