Clouds

It has been very cloudy in Baltimore over the past few days. I was sitting out at the Harbor yesterday and looking at the clouds. My initial reaction when I see clouds is to say how yucky it looks out. But the truth is, the sight of clouds really fills me with a bit of awe; they really are pretty cool looking. When I was little I used to look up at the clouds and imagine all kinds of shapes in them. I would see people and animals and objects. I would imagine whole stories about the things I saw in the sky. I haven't taken the time to do that in quite a while. On my drive to work today, I was thinking more about the function of clouds - how they hold the rain that the earth needs to grow and flourish. Rain has never really bothered me (especially since being in Israel) because I know how much we need it, and all the incredible things that are provided by the drops that fall from the sky. So the clouds are really very important, because they are the carriers of the nourishing rain that the world needs so badly in order to grow. It made me think about the clouds in our lives. We often see clouds, or challenges, rolling into our lives and we get fearful and stressed out. These clouds bring the rain, or pain, into our lives. We go through the storm, it may be hard, it may cause some damage, we may need to seek shelter to get through it. But on the other side of the storm, when the clouds part, and the sun shines through again, we have been given nourishment and what we need to grow. And braving the storm, taking in the water, enables us to sprout and in turn beautify and fulfill what we are here to do. In the middle of the storm, it is difficult to see the beauty of what will eventually be the outcome. But if we make the most of every drop of rain we are given, and if we appreciate the clouds that roll through our lives as lessons and growth material, we can actualize the potential of the storms we are given.