Sometimes (a lot of times) life gets a little bit chaotic.
I almost wrote “my life gets a little bit chaotic” but I honestly don’t know anyone whose life isn’t a little wild at the moment. We’re all juggling jobs, plans, goals, home life, and whatever nonsense our local communities and governments are getting up to. The idea of quiet days in a hammock reading through our TBR piles while someone brings us delicious meals is lovely, but not likely.
Other people might have a higher tolerance for the stress than I do, or have better solutions at hand, but this past week I found myself feeling very overwhelmed. There are a bunch of open-ended questions in my life. Between book contracts, work problems, and the general chaos of a large family I needed a mental health break.
Unfortunately, reality doesn’t come with a pause button and staying up all night to binge-watch my favorite show or re-read my favorite book isn’t an option.
So I went for a cloud walk.
What is a cloud walk you say?
Well, it’s a name I made up while out walking and probably isn’t a new idea at all, but it involves going for a walk and looking for shapes in the clouds.
To start, I was just looking up. Trying to slow my breathing down and think about something that wasn’t stressful. The sun was setting. The clouds were fluffy. It was was a beautiful night for a walk.
As I kept walking I started to notice little shapes appearing. Hints of something between the clouds. There was almost a hint of a star between these clouds. Can you see it? The start of a star? Three sharper angles that almost outline the sky?
This one was even easier to find… a heart!
I walked closer, hoping to get a better angle or a better view… and the shape vanished.
At a new angle, the shape wasn’t there. It only existed at a certain time, at a certain perspective.
The cloud walk helped, because I needed that reminder… everything is unique and fleeting.
Everyone has a unique view of the world around us. What I see and what you see aren’t the same. They may be very, VERY similar, but we both are looking at it from a unique perspective created by our individual experiences. Our backgrounds, our beliefs, our preferences… all of that changes what we see and how we react.
It’s why you can read your favorite trope from a dozen different authors and get hundreds of new stories: each author brings something new to the mix.
It’s why you can love something someone else just does not understand. Your favorite food, or show, or music just hits differently for someone else.
It’s why you might have loved something a few years ago and now it’s just not working for you.
If you find yourself as overwhelmed and stressed by the world as I have been this past week, may I suggest you stop and look at the clouds?
Clouds are always changing, always moving. Their story is different from moment to moment, just like yours is. Clouds form, fall apart in crashing storms, flutter away in the breeze, and reform. A beautiful cycle of life, growth, and change.
It’s a story I know I need to remember.
On the days when life gets frustrating and seems too chaotic to handle, I go for a cloud walk and look for the shapes as I try to remember that I’m changing shapes too. What I do, what I love, where I live, it’s all temporary. I need to enjoy what I have in the moment because the winds will change, new patterns will form, and something different will fall into my life.
And that’s all okay.
Because there will be something beautiful in the next cloud too.