When I was a kid in the summer I would read laying on the ground. If something struck me in what I was reading that I wondered about I would gaze up at the sky and clouds. I never looked at clouds and tried to figure out what they looked like in real life, such as a bunny rabbit or something. I thought that was silly. They fascinated me because of their ever changing shapes and colors and movement. They allowed me to gaze into them and think about whatever had made me stop reading with a fluidity and motion in my mind that matched the movement of clouds.
I still look at clouds, although not laying on my back reading a book as I did when I was young. More often I notice them when I'm on the road, another form of motion, whether that is in the city or travelling through the landscape of Arizona or New Mexico. In the city and out in the urban areas I stop and look and take photos because I'm still fascinated by them. Whether they are cirrus or stratus or cumulus I long ago forgot from my college days. I only know the difference between what kind of weather they will bring by pure experience and instinct.
What is great about life at a mature age is as a friend wrote "isn't it wonderful to be at peace with yourselves and your lives?" We were having an email exchange about how the tumultuous events of the world do not disrupt us as much as they once did. We know we have little control over what happens in the big picture, although they may change our lives, we can't change them. We only control how we react and adjust to events in our country and the world. We are past the age of worry, in solid long term relationships, satisfied with where we are as people. Our lives are in the second half now and we still think and marvel with liquidity about all kinds of things. The difference is we are in a sense reverting back to our youth and still wonder about things with a fluidity and motion of the mind now tempered by the wisdom of having lived longer.
