Clouds:

I’m a wonder to behold

A marshmellow if you will

On sunny days

I’m as white and fluffy as can be

On cloudy days

I’m shades of shadowy gray

I float gracefully across the sky

A work of Art

And if you look closely enough

You’ll see that

I can become

Anything you

Imagine me to be.

Bernadette Marie Zvonek.

Since my childhood if something has amazed me the most, it has been the clouds.. It is perhaps my first childhood pal. I spent my initial 6 yrs at my maternal grandparents place with virtually no friends. Being the only kid for a long time, I was pampered too much to move and play around as my grandpa thought I would hurt myself. Since toys and dolls never attracted or interested me, my favourite pastime was cloudgazing in the evening and if it happened to be a clear sky then finding and counting stars when it was still twilight. So my bonding with clouds goes wayback into my childhood.
It was amazing and amusing to see them change shapes. Sometimes funny,sometimes scary, sometimes it reminded me of ice-creams and sometimes it was a muddle. Whatever shape it took or for that matter I interpreted, it was beautiful and I used to spend my evening looking up in the sky. I still do so when I sit in my balcony or while travelling, looking out of the window. It is ironical but I am actually scared of my pal when it thunders and rumbles but I guess all of us are scared.
People identify clouds with gloom, obscurity, grief and melancholy but for me its all about positivity, about hope, about new beginning, about making others happy. I thought I am one of a kind who enjoys cloudgazing but while net surfing, I found quite a many. In fact, there is a site named ‘The Cloud Appreciation Society’ which talks about all aspect of clouds, scientific, litrary, philosophical and other art forms. It was a revelation as earlier I thought it was crazy of me to look up in the sky and enjoy this fizzy frothy thing.
Clouds resembles our life-cycle. Its said that our bodies are made up of the five elements of the nature i.e. soil, water,fire, air and sky and after we die, we disintegrate into these five elements.We grow up and touch numerous heights but we come back to where we started from, same applies on clouds. It is made up of water. It rises and again comes down. Its form changes but traits remain the same.
Elders say that we reincarnate as living beings only. But I want to reincarnate (yes! I do believe in reincarnation) as clouds as it moves freely anywhere and everywhere. It empties and destroys itself to satiate the thirst of the earth and rises again as phoenix. It’s mortal yet immortal, so graceful yet so crude, so delicate yet so sturdy, inanimate yet so animated. Does any other thing has all these traits but clouds? No, as far as I can think, I don’t find any.