Clouds and Other Things to Read

by

Anne Michael

Do you remember lying on your back in the bright green grass on a summer’s day when you were a child, feeling it tickle the backs of your bare legs and looking up at a sky so impossibly blue that it filled you with delight, watching the clouds floating overhead and picking out familiar things in their shapes? I do. I adored those days. I can still summon the smells, and bring back the memory of the sun’s warmth on my skin and the hum of the cicadas in the nearby trees. I had cause to think about those delicious and ineffably sweet days of summer earlier in the week when a friend sent me an e-mail that began with the words, “The thing about clouds,” and went on to say, “is that they are transient. They don't linger forever. They either summon their friends and pile themselves up into a storm, or they evaporate when the sun's rays shine through them.” I don’t even remember what the rest of the e-mail was about, but that thought has burned itself for reasons unknown into my heart and head.

That simple sentence, rife with all sorts of meaning, tickled my fancy. I realized how much there is to read in life besides books, newspapers, periodicals and e-mail. Think about it! As a child, on the  ground gazing at the sky filled with wonders like clouds, jet trails, planes, moons stars, birds and flying bugs, a spark of that beautiful thing called curiosity fires a question. It is that thirst that fans the flames of curiosity and sends a child in search of answers. The quest, the need for information, starts at a very young age. “Why?” is the first question out of a child’s mouth.

My grandmother and her brothers grew up on a farm in Poland. They never lost their love of the land and the feel of dirt between their fingers. They always had huge gardens and cold cellars redolent with the smells of cool potatoes, crisp apples and jars of vegetables lining the pantry shelves that they put up each autumn. It was through helping Granny in the garden that I learned weather lore and how to read clouds. Farmers read the leaves on the trees, the habits of the frogs and birds, the clouds in the skies, the color of the moon and the dawn to know what kind of day it’s going to be. From that they plan accordingly. I’ve learned that a farmer is generally more accurate than the weather forecaster on television, at least for the short term. It always makes me laugh when the weatherman is calling for bright sunny weather and the view out the window shows a downpour.

I spend my days training folks to do their jobs and I read the faces in the room to tell me if what I’m illustrating or teaching is sinking in. Frustration, boredom, amusement, fear, confusion, and those wonderful “ah-ha” moments run like rabbits across faces guiding me during the course of a day. All of us read the faces of the people around us to test the veracity of what we’re being told. Is that person sincere, are joking? Angry, surprised, hurt, or happy? It’s amazing how much there is to read in the face of another. Adolescents are usually mortified at the blush that betrays them when in the presence of the person on whom they have a crush. It is fascinating reading.

Bodies have their own language that requires reading. Do the crossed arms signify that the person we are dealing with doesn’t want to hear what we have to say or are they cold? Is the fist, clenched at someone’s side going to be raised as a sign of victory or is it time to duck? I have found it amazing that even a pair of eyes can cloud over making it impossible to see into a person, and may indicate that there’s a storm of some sort on the horizon much like the weather.

Living in Florida, it has become s a kind of recreation to read a crowd and figure out who’s who. It’s easy to tell who lives here fulltime. We are the folks who don’t have tans because we are busy working. We suffer from moon burn and look just as pale unless we sit in the park at lunch time trying to get some color—often succeeding only in melting our panty hose. English tourists, however, are easy to spot. They glow like beacons, so ferocious is the sunburn on their fair skin that comes with having spent the day at the beach. It’s then I wish for some clouds for them as they go about their business of sightseeing. When spotting someone with a face that looks like the inside of an old catcher’s mitt it’s a cinch to know that they work outside or worship the sun.

Information is everywhere!

Just as in those long ago days when the world was a carefree place, and the most important thing I could do was observe all those things around me or the clouds above me, I still read clouds whether they are in the sky or a pair of eyes and ask why.  Then I go in search of answers.

Like tea leaves in the gypsy’s cup I hope the clouds in your sky are full of interesting shapes and may your life a very good read.


At age 10, Anne realized she was never going to get to be Miss America since reading a book was not an acceptable talent. So she went on to get a job and raise a family. Along the way, she fixed meals, picked up toys, helped with homework, and collected a drawer full of rejection slips for her “great American novel.” It was not all bad, however, since she ended up wallpapering a closet with them. She currently designs and creates greeting cards for her tiny company, The Frog Prints, LLC, and also works full-time as a Training Specialist. Anne is currently tethered to reality by a loving spouse, two dogs and the occasional hurricane that blows through Florida, although falling headlong and happily into a book is still her favorite “talent.” Contact Anne.