54321: 1 Things I can See

One thing I can see from my office window are the solid smokey white clouds that are starting to recede against themselves while they move across the ocean blue sky.   Each cloud that slowly streams on by carries with it its own distinct shape.  Many forming the shapes of my memories from the past, others creating their own continents that I imagine separate all the citizens who already dwell in heaven.  The scene is beautiful and powerful enough to provoke me to grab a camera out of desperation to preserve this perfect moment. 

The celestial trail of visible gases and atmospheric moisture almost induce a hypnotic effect that seduces one to the pleasures of the past.  There is a rush of childhood protected memories, episodes full of sunny days that hang over my hometown, long-lost friends and all the abandoned bicycles that remain scattered throughout my childhood. These memories are then paired like a perfectly selected culinary side dish to compliment the main course that provides me with the emotional nourishment I crave in this very moment.  I can feel the burst of renewed inspiration sizzling within my resting body as I take inventory of the treasured moments that stick to the ancient landscapes of my youth. 

One distinct shape begins to reveal itself in the midst of these fluffy formations.  A district outline of another pleasurable association I made a long time ago.  What is revealed to me is the head of a mother, extending toward another batch of unrelated white clouds that floats underneath who offer up what looks like is the shape of a small baby about to be nurtured by the mother’s growing lips from above.  My mind gives the baby movement sparking a much-needed moment of delusion that causes a cloud to move in the shape of a baby’s leg.  I manage to catch the thought that my entire existence is facing in this particular direction. It makes me smile which only intensifies the beauty being absorbed through my steady eyes.    

The two clouds eventually collide returning the mother to the womb of her own baby as they both make haste to the paradise that I hope hides out of site behind the clouds from the view below.  My mind continues to keep pace with this new “mother” cloud as it inches closer out of my view. 

I take one deep breath.