Clouds

So many songs and hymns talk about "blue skies" and "cloudless skies." Those skies are nice.

 But I have to say it's these kinds of skies that take my breath away. Skies with clouds.

 If it weren't for storms and threats of storms, these skies wouldn't exist. It's the storms that make the most dramatic, breathtaking skies.

Same with life. It's the stormy stuff that paints the dramatic and breathtaking pictures. But sometimes you have to be willing to stand outside in the wind and look up to see it.

Take today, for instance. We drove home from Williamsburg, where we spent a really enjoyable, delightfully non-traditional Thanksgiving w/Alan's family in the Great Wolf Lodge. The drive COULD be 3 1/2 hours. Today it took about six. But when do Alan and I get that much time together for conversation? When do our kids get that many consecutive hours to practice their creativity? And how nice to still have hours in which to finish reading "Little Town on the Prairie"aloud even after all that other stuff. Unwanted storm. Beautiful sky.

(NOTE: these thoughts represent only the opinion of their author, and not necessarily those of the driver of the car in which she had them. He would definitely have found WAY more beauty in only 3 1/2 hours of conversation, creativity, and reading aloud, even though he has a great deal of genuine appreciation for dramatic, stormy skies. :)