Above the Clouds    

There is an experience that anyone, who has flown on a plane, may recognise.

You are boarding a flight and the weather on the ground is grim  ~ not a sniff of sunshine ~  for me it was Glasgow on a very grey and cloudy day in February. It was blowing a gale, with rain bucketing down, the kind of day for which the word dreach was surely born.

I felt like a bag of assorted aches and pains dragging round a collection of habits and not looking forward to the flight or the situation waiting for me on landing, but I sat back and gazed out the window as we took off in the driving rain.

I was not enjoying this. My head was full of dreachness.

Then, very quickly . . . . everything changed 

We broke through the  thick lower layers of cloud into brilliant sunshine and the mood of everyone onboard shifted instantly.

It was a great reminder of how easy it is for me to only see a situation from a limited viewpoint, just seeing one aspect of it, with no clear air or fresh perspective to help not get so caught up in what appears to be right in front of my face, especially on days when I am just not in the sunshine.

I am sure there are many people who know that feeling, especially if we are struggling with something longterm and our view or ourselves and the world has become limited. It is a simple challenge to keep our head up and remember that we can affect the course of our day, very practically, by letting our imagination help us experience something fully inside us ~ to help ourselves lift our spirits.

I know that I do not actually have to fly in a plane or make it to the top af a mountain to experience this lightening inside myself ~ though, if I get the chance . . . one of my favourite things to do would still be to go up in a plane, even if it's just in my head. I wouldn't even need to be going anywhere.

I am happy just knowing the clouds are a layer waiting to be broken through into sunshine. Mountains or planes are not always practical or possible. so my imagination may have to do. These days it is simply the sense of being above the clouds that seems most helpful to me.

Of course this only really works for me if I feel grounded in it and not driven by the urge to escape anything.

The other great thing about having my perspective instantly shifted is that now I look at all clouds differently too. These days I love clouds, whatever their size and shape, however dense and grey they are or black and filled with rain.

They are all here to be explored too ~ and that is something that brings me energy.

Now . . . .I don't have a private jet flying me round Glasgow everywhere when I need to do my shopping or when I just fancy another jaunt above the clouds. This is really about fishing for little moments of clear space to help me through my day and I hope to carry that with me, in my pocket, all the time.