Clouds

I awoke this morning to a thick shroud of fog enveloping my house. For nearly a week now I’ve awakened to fog. My house sits high on stilts, overlooking the land, communing with the treetops that neighbor it. We are equals, the trees and I. Like a child who finally reaches eye level to his parents, I feel lucky to look so squarely into the branches of my trees.

But today the branches were mere silhouettes, and the city, the view from my windows, was concealed behind a milky white sky.

Recently a friend asked me if I liked the fog. ”Like it?” I answered. “I love it!” It brings me back to my suburban childhood in Milwaukee, where fog was a rare experience. I remember looking out my window to see our quiet street to see it blanketed in gray. I stepped out the door and walked down the street, arms straight out from my side, calling back to my sister, “I’m in a cloud! I’m walking in a cloud!” It was as if the heavens had descended on us for a visit.

There is something to be said for living with one’s head in the clouds. When I look out into the fog, I cannot see too far ahead. Sometimes I can barely see the car in front of me, or the house next door, and the long-distance range is certainly out of reach. It makes me live right here, right now, in the immediate. The fog is magical and mystical, and it creates a border for my surroundings. I appreciate the outline of the fence on mornings like these. The trees are framed. And the world is still. All of the extraneous doesn’t seem to matter when, instead of seeing the vastness of the world, I notice pellets of moisture floating in front of me.

It is mid-morning now. Typically the sun would have broken through already, but not today. I’ve decided to go with it. I’m going to leave my grocery list and office tasks and bills behind and take a drive to the country. I’m going to saddle up a horse and go for a long ride. By the time I’m driving home the sun will have pierced the sky and time will have moved forward. But, until then, it seems like the perfect day to live in the clouds.

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