Been looking at the sky lately. Watching clouds as you might have noticed by the photos I've been posting. No particular reason. It's just caught my interest. I like the deep blue against the white of the clouds maybe. Or perhaps I just like looking up. I don't think I've really looked at clouds since I was a child.
     I remember sitting under a huge sycamore tree in one of our pastures for hours, watching the sky. Watching the white and gray shapes. I even checked out a few books from the Carnegie Library to learn more about them.
     Cumulus, stratus, cirrus. The three major types of clouds. Cumulus are fluffy clouds that look like tufts of cotton. Stratus clouds look like they're flat sheets. Cirrus clouds are high feathery clouds, often seen in wispy rows. (A lot of cirrus clouds together make a mackerel sky, so called because the clouds look like the overlapping scales of a fish.)
     Ancient peoples used the sky to tell the future as well as the weather. You can find mention of cloud shapes that foretold good or bad harvests, the rise of certain kings, the death of rulers.
     Science has taken all the magic out of clouds for most people. We look at radar pictures on the news or listen to reports on the radio, but no one expects a cloud to tell them anything.
     That's probably a relief for a cloud as it's a lot to expect from dust particles and water vapor or ice crystals. Still, I am told in certain parts of the United States, Central America and Africa, shamans and holy ones still read the sky with awe and fear. I wonder what it says.

© 2004. All rights reserved.