Look Up: Celebrating Clouds


Coffee in hand, cool California air, looking up, watching the sunrise, noticing the artful way the sky shifts and shapes each cloud… a special way to start my morning.  Watching the sky transform, I find myself thinking back to moments in my own life, and special moments from my youth- watching the clouds move across the desert sky.  One of my favorite past times as a child was cloud watching.  Growing up my family would spend the summers in the mountains in northern Arizona, and the sky was a perfect color blue.  Have you ever seen a sky so close it was almost like you could reach out and touch the clouds?  That’s what the sky is like there, and to me, it’s magical.

I also found myself thinking about a group I facilitated last year where we discussed clouds, as a symbol of slowing down, healing, and guidance.  What I loved about that group is how beautifully everyone described their experience.

I invite you to also sit down and experience cloud for yourself, answer the questions, listen to the meditation, or go outside, look up, and journal your thoughts!

When you think of Cloud what comes to mind?  What words would you use to describe cloud?  
Above it all, lifted, pillow, peace, fun, light, love, imagination, childlike, free, fluffy, traveling, powerful, rolling, colorful, cool, fresh, cottony, simple, profound, Lightness, shapes, gentle, soft, flowing, shade, happiness, transformation, poetic, magic, lightness, youthfulness, down-comforter soft, serene, and heavenly.

What does Cloud symbolize to you?

What we love about cloud is that it symbolizes to us medley of: comfort, safety, serenity, calm, peace, heavenly, simplicity, freedom, and joy, and transformation.

Take a moment to close you eyes, a few deep breaths to ground you and listen to our group’s Cloud Meditation:


Write about the cloud you saw while in Meditation?  Use all five senses (taste, touch, smell, sight, hear) to describe and create your vision.

Here’s what my group said:

White, cotton candy like with piano music
clouds that smell like spring rain
clouds at sunset, pink, purple with light shining around through them,
calm and quiet
joyful, blue skies and puffy white clouds
purple bubblegum clouds
brushstroke clouds that remind us of painting and creative inspiration

 “When I was in meditation I saw this amazing pink and purple cloud with light shining through it and I heard a message that said- you are happy, alive and free”

When was the last time you remember taking a moment to notice the clouds?  Has your ability to notice the clouds and the natural world changed since becoming sober?  Write about it.

Our group discussed a higher awareness of clouds, that now that we are sober and more aware of what’s around us.  That we had forgotten about the magic of clouds as we progressed through the heaviness of life, forgetting to take a moment to stop and be playful and fully in the moment.  Cloud watching incorporates a sense of idleness, of actively doing nothing, which is innately different then numbing out and watching TV.  When we look up at the sky we feel a sense of calmness and peace.  

 

When you were a child, do you remember spending time playfully and whimsically watching the clouds past by?  What comes to mind?

“As a child on a trampoline watching the clouds pass by for hours”
“Sitting with my child on a hill watching clouds pass by”
“Skydiving through the clouds”

As we move through life, we often forget to slow down and look up.   How can you incorporate cloud watching as a part of your mindfulness and meditation practice?

Our minds are often thinking about so much that we often forget to even look up at the sky.  Space that was initially carved out for time to look around and take a deep breath is often taken up by texting, think about it, when we even stop to cross the street we have our phones in our hands and are looking down.  We agreed that using clouds as meditation is truly special, taking the time to tune in, calm down, look up, bring our awareness up to the heavens above, take a deep breath, and be fully present.