When we think of skies, we often think of blue sky with white clouds. As adults we often forget to appreciate the natural beauty available to us simply by looking up.
There are many other types of skies, of course. For the past ten days, we’ve had lots of turbulent weather here in the Midwest (St. Louis). We’ve seen thunderstorms almost every day. We’ve also see lots of sun, and we’ve seen many of combinations of bright sun while new storms were brewing. It makes for some spectacular skies. I couldn’t help noticing and photographing the dramatic cloud formations.
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The photo above is actually a stitching together of three photos, looking to the north from a midtown St. Louis overpass. If you click on it you’ll get a much better view (you are invited to click on any of these, to enlarge them).
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The above photo was taken by Charlotte, my seven year old daughter, who exclaimed that the huge clouds dwarfed the airplane.
Charlotte took this one too:
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She snapped the photo out of the car window, which you can see from the blurred telephone pole.
I took the photo below outside my office window today. The formations changed so dramatically and so often that I found myself glancing out the window repeatedly. It made me feel like a kid that I was taking the time to notice the vista. It’s like living in a lava lamp.
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If it weren’t that we so often have the chance to see spectacular skies, we’d stop taking them for granted. If they occurred only once each year, we’d probably gather outside to stare at the skies on that special night–we’d probably even create a holiday for that day where all of us would show up with our cameras. We’d sing special cloud songs and eat special cloud-watching food.
Truly, the colors, the formations and the movement make Fourth of July fireworks look amateurish.
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Maybe we should even cancel the fireworks this Fourth of July to remind each other that we can also be peaceful people. We really could start to celebrate our peaceful moments as well as our war-like history. And we can do it with naturally-occurring glorious backgrounds many days each year.
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