Here’s to the Next 40: Day 23: The Clouds Rolling By

Are you one of those people who find a spot in a field, plant yourself, and look up at the clouds?  Did you play the game identifying what the clouds resembled?  I wasn’t one of those kids, but as an adult I live in a place with amazing cloud formations.  It’s interesting to look out toward the mountains and see the billowy puffs of white.

I had a yesterday where I was feeling blue. It’s a funny thing (ironic when speaking about sadness) but I felt a funk in my body.  There weren’t any precipitating factors.  No life events lending themselves to feeling down.  I’m caring for my niece’s cats while she’s away, and thought when I returned, I’d take the dog for a walk.  If you’ve read any of my work about the dog, I call her my “Buddha on a Leash”.  I couldn’t bring myself to take her out.

I went along the rest of the day and did what I always do, and yet, nothing shifted my mood.  I wasn’t in a place where I wanted to cry, sit in the dark, or bemoan my place in the world.  I didn’t know how today would be after a good night’s sleep.

I woke up, got my husband off to work, and started my day.  I have a creative ritual in the morning, creating collages.  I noticed I felt light.  The sadness dissipated like the clouds moving along with the wind.  I woke up to a new day and a new attitude.

When I texted my husband about it, I told him the clouds rolled in and in the same way they left.  All I have in my heart is clear skies.  Why I thought I’d be exempt from a blue day is a mystery to me.  I like you are not exempt from anything, good or bad.

Allowing the clouds to pass by and notice them is how I reconcile the temporary feeling of sadness.  If you read my post from earlier today, I mentioned Andy Andrews.  One of the seven decisions in his book The Travelers Gift, a lesson from Anne Frank is, “I choose to be happy.”  

What else in your life can you let roll by like the clouds?

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Open to Possibilities

Could Cinderella ever imagine she would be freed from the chains binding her?  There are times when life gives us lemons.  This isn’t suggesting we make lemonade.  This is expressing the reality of places, thoughts, or circumstances leaving us tied up in knots.  

One of the things Cinderella never gave up on was possibility.  She never would have wished for, prayed for, or summoned her fairy godmother if she didn’t believe there was something beyond her current state-of-affairs.

Let’s move on to Misty Copeland.  Could a thirteen-year-old poor black girl ever imagine she would be a principal dancer for the American Ballet Theater?  There are times when others can see something in us, we didn’t see in ourselves.  These people provide the chrysalis for our eventual transformation.  There is a catalyst causing a spiritual chemical reaction allowing one’s natural talent to emerge and shine.

How do we come to know what’s possible?  The author Andy Andrews wrote a book I give to many people called The Travelers Gift.  Andrews lost both parents as a teen.  A mysterious man showed up in his life and gave him three biographies to read.  He was hooked on biographies and autobiographies.  What he realized after reading over two hundred of this genre is no one who wrote an autobiography or had a biography written about them failed.  They all came through their challenges.  Perhaps this genre is a place to start.  It’s like getting a running start for the broad jump.  We need some lift to go far.

Explore what you believe is only imagination.  Give yourself the energy and impetus to see who in the world ever overcame similar obstacles to you and see what catapulted them to achieve their dreams.  It’s a good place to start before adding your own ingredients to life’s great recipe.

For more art and prompts, I’ve posted over 1,100 collages, follow me on

Instagram/Threads: @drfiber