Clouds

I love sunshine, love having it stream through my windows, love being outside under a blue sky. Rainy days aren’t too bad, since rain is necessary. I can easily thank God for both sunshine and rain. Then there are those cloudy days, overcast skies, no sunshine, no rain or snow, just clouds. Here in Ohio, gray skies are common. I can’t remember thanking God for them. But they, too, have purpose.

An article on How Stuff Works explains that daytime clouds reflect incoming heat back into space, cooling the earth. They also absorb incoming solar radiation. During the night, high level clouds blanket the earth, absorbing heat released as the ground cools and re-radiating a portion back to us.

Sunset with contrail clouds on a drive home

As internet searches do, this one taught me more than I was looking for. I found the Cloud Appreciation Society, a group of more than 50,000 folks who according to their manifesto, “fight ‘blue-sky thinking’ wherever we find it,” and remind us to live life with our head in the clouds.

Now, I do appreciate interesting clouds and often take pictures of them. The most beautiful sunrises and sunsets feature clouds’ reflections of rising or setting sun’s beams. For the science of this, read “How to predict a good sunrise or sunset so you can brag about it on social media.”

Sunrise over our neighbor’s house

And isn’t it wonderful when rain clouds and sunshine collide in the sky? This rainbow was a delightful surprise on a down day. There is zoomed photo in my Quiet post.

Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth. Genesis 9:16

Web MD reports that 9% of us are negatively affected by dark, cloudy days. That’s fewer than I expected. Moods become less happy, lonely, down, sad, and even angry.  The antidote is to go outside and walk, still absorbing UV rays that help regulate circadian rhythm and boost mood. If you can’t get outside, do some exercise, perhaps dance. And connect with someone else to avoid feeling that things are worse than they are.

We shouldn’t pretend that this Covid19 crisis isn’t real and that it isn’t having an impact on our emotions. It can feel like a giant cloud that just won’t lift or an approaching storm that warrants fear. It takes some effort and a little help from our friends to find the bright spots, the rainbows, the 5% of the sky that is blue. Let’s find and hold onto those things and resist being pulled into the whirlwind of constant frightening messages. The clouds will lift. This, too, will pass.

So, it’s cloudy today, but warm enough for a walk with earmuffs and gloves. It’s tempting to stay in on gray days, but it’s brighter outside than it seems.  I even spotted a sun substitute.

A neighbor’s healthy forsythia in bright bloom.

He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills. Psalm 147:8