I’ve been on an awful lot of plane rides lately, and this time of year travel is especially interesting, since I’m often coming and going between completely different climates. Departure is snowy and arrival is steamy, or departure is sunny and arrival is overcast.
All this change can be disorienting, and so I’ve been trying to pay attention to cloud break, the moment when the plane pokes above the cloud cover. I will never forget the first time I flew up in a rainstorm, when the sun blazed through and shocked me, the moment we rose high enough.
Storm down below? It’s sunny up there.
Ten below zero on the ground? It’s sunny up there.
Gloomy and gray as far as the eye can see? It’s still sunny up there.
This omnipresent energy, this source of radiance and light, this supporter of photosynthesis and vitamin D, is just beaming down on us, without pause, beyond the clouds and rain and snow.
Dear ones, if we are very lucky, we have a few people in our lives with this same power, shining forth to light our days. And when the darkest days arrive, our own solar system is here to remind us that beyond the clouds, no matter how ominous they may be, the sun is still shining.
We just have to gain enough altitude to see it.