Last week, during a flight to Munich, and equally this week during my return journey to London, I witnessed some spectacular cumulus scenes from above, with the moist earth being the canvas.
The changing cloudscapes drifting on the wind teased my imagination. I wanted to wander into this world that words can scarce describe, be there alone with my own heartbeat, where past and future is one and present. I’m no Percy Bysshe Shelley, who gave an eloquent voice to The Cloud
… I am the daughter of Earth and Water, 
And the nursling of the Sky …
His cloud speaks of the ‘pilot.’
… This pilot is guiding me, Lured by the love of the genii that move In the depth of the purple sea …
Shelley’s time had no flying machines that did away with the invisible navigator. He perceived through the inner eye.
The first Cloud Atlas was documented in 1896.
Today’s airline pilots must know their clouds
Like us, clouds change but keep on living. We and they are fleeting manifestations of nature – a show of impermanence ornamenting this planet. The water of oceans, lakes and rivers, the sap of life, flowing through the perspiration of plants and all living organisms, including the breath of 7 Billion people, clings and seeps into the warm earth only to be drawn up again, where its vapour compacts in cold air and spirals into fluid shapes between us and the blue dome, where all moods find expression – wild charcoal formations with dove grey wisps parading at the horizon, luminous coloured tendrils and satin sheets in slanting sunlight at dawn and dusk, or dewy porcelain veils.
Clouds are moisture made visible. Who knows what information is inscribed and carried in droplets from one place to another? It takes about one million cloud droplets to form one raindrop.
What rises also falls. There is a wonderful Sufi story about this cycle of transformation, serving as a metaphor for identity, the form we must inevitably relinquish to change into another form while maintaining our essence … here told by Terence Stamp: The Tale of the Sands
There is ongoing research of water as an agent – receiving impressions and holding patterns of information. Water can be vitalised, for example, which explains things we know the results of but not the reason. Such findings, while presently called pseudo-science, may yet confirm many of our intuitions. Water is alive, and living things form a centre and have intelligence.
Course of Mirrors 
It always seems like magic when I watch clouds from above and they seem so much more “cloudy”. Lovely pictures.
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Love wandering among the clouds, in my imagination.The photos, thanks. Lucky fair days and a window seat did it.
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‘dewy porcelain veils’…lovely! I love clouds too, they calm, inspire and humble the human soul. Isn’t there something simply wonderful about Terence Stamp’s voice? 😀
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Thanks S.
Terence, yes, I first thought of pasting the story into the post but then found his wonderful reading.
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Wonderful resonating voice, lovely reading. I always love your posts sweetie. 😀
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Great photos of the clouds, the water planet, with reflection from Shelley’s poem (“arise and unbuild it again” – good idea for poetry writing) which gives the clouds of your flight a context where everything continues to change, to move, to evolve, the clouds, rivers and oceans, borders, homes, relationships, writing.
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It’s a curious condition of feeling restless while also abiding in the rapture of the still point 🙂
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You secure life in all experiences, even a flight. The clouds and water, and the story of the sands all made a whole, and the beauty of the images, both literal and metaphorical, integrated to clam and inspire. Thank you.
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Asher you have captured the feel of clouds beautifully.
Water takes so many different forms and makes our planet the special place it is.
I love the idea that clouds forming over one nation deliver rain relief to another nation, as they go on their journey.
Taoism understands that water is powerful and ultimately renders all things soft and workable.B
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Thanks B. 🙂 … water … renders all things soft and workable … the magic formula of transformation.
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Wonderful piece on clouds, Ashen! And Shelley is my favourite poet.
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Thanks Jane 🙂
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Thank you for this lovely post so eloquently showing nature made manifest in her glory and her continual cycles of change : clouds, vapour, water ..
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Pleased to have a new visitor. Thanks for browsing my posts. Will visit your island 🙂
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