Cloudology. Say It Like You Have a Mouth Full of Marbles. It’s Funner That Way.

I often find myself saying, “Today I saw the most amazing sky.” That should denote the best of the best. Like I couldn’t see anything more beautiful. But, I swear I keep seeing an even more amazing sky day after day.



Cloud dove.

I have a fascination with the sky. With clouds in particular. I’m forever oohing and aahing at the sky or taking pictures if some formation catches my eye. Okay, that’s almost every day. To me, and to others (because I think I’ve heard it quoted this way), the sky is like a canvas. It’s a blank canvas that is forever changing…becoming a priceless piece of artwork that we can only fully take in with our eyes and our minds. And, even then, I don’t know how fully it is because there are times when I wish I could hold an image of it and put it into the core of my being forever.

Took this yesterday somewhere between MA and ME.



One of the things I love about the sky is when you add the rising or setting sun in it. With all the colors that are exuded then, mixed with the swaths of clouds, it’s almost more than one can take in at any one time. That must be where the term ‘breath-taking’ came from. My Sweet-Smelling Girlfriend has told me that one of the things she’ll miss when she dies are the sunrises. I’d have to agree with her and add the sunsets in there, too, because I tend to take as many evening walks on the beach as I can. Right now I live close to the ocean and life is too short not to enjoy the natural beauty around us.

  

Sometimes, the sky seems uniformly grey and without definition of clouds. I find that our moods are changed by what we find in the sky. How many people mope around on gloomy days? Lots. When the sky is all grey, we should try not to get down. Instead, we should look at it as a canvas covered with tinted gesso readying itself for another glorious day.

Cameras can capture pieces of the sky and help us to remember the beauty of the clouds and colors before us. But unless you can photograph it 360 degrees around you, it’s hard to see exactly what you can take in like you can with the human eye.

I was joking with my oldest one day about how I thought that I should be a cloudologist. One who studies clouds. I’m sure technically that would really fit under the heading of meteorologist, but cloudologist doesn’t cover all of the weather and it is so much more fun to say. Especially if you say it like Bill Murray’s character, Carl Spackler, in Caddyshack would. (Now, you want to go watch that movie again don’t you? It’s a classic. Trust me.)

Now, if I was really a cloudologist, I’d have to know the names of the clouds. I do have vague recollections in my head of words like cirrus and cumulus and cumulonimbus. I’m sure I could and should go brush up on the names of the many types that I think I once knew. And, with the internet, that’s even easier to do these days. I guess, though, that I’d put myself in the artist-cloudologist category. I appreciate the beauty of the clouds in the sky without having to define them.

I see them and enjoy them. I’m in awe of their beauty. I think of ways I can capture their images. And, when I do, what can I do with them? I don’t need to use my voice to label them; to know the individual names of what I see in the sky. I would use my voice, though, just to say ‘cloudology.’ Because it’s wicked fun to say. Especially like Carl.

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