...On Changes, Cloudy Days & a Ray of Sunshine

Manhattan Clouds by V. Richardson

Changes. Sometimes they are as predictable as the seasons. Fall is here! Already. Cool, cloudy days abound and those can be lovely and treasured. There's a beauty and a fascination to those cool, turbulent and cloudy days that peaceful, clear ones don't hold. Those are the perfect days for introspection, study and if caught under a cloudburst some character building.

If unexpected, do we really appreciate those changes -- those cloudy days? Not always -- not until they are over and we either see the devastation left behind, or the fruitful results of the unexpected cloudbursts. But how to reach the sunshine when mother nature is in control and we're in the midst of those clouds?

Autumn. What a marvel of nature. Leaves are falling and all is dying, but the colors are rioting and more beautiful than ever! Even more beautiful than in the spring... one last hurrah before all is gone! But during this last hurrah, the clouds, changes and cloudbursts, do you still search for that ray of sunshine? Where do you look for it?

Sunflower Morning by J. McGuiness

I often find it in simple everyday things, a book, a friend, a conversation... and sometimes in the most complex of nature's gifts. The sunflower, a sturdy, complex ray of sunshine for a cloudy day. A smart flower that follows the sun from east to west during the day, and readies itself at night by facing east to start its quest for sunshine all over again. Thinking of the complexity that makes a sunflower, its spirals and its daily quest, always makes me pause and lifts my day.