June 16 - Day 75 - 'I really don't know clouds at all' Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell

When I get home tonight I will have reached the half way point - 15 weeks, 75 days and 2250 miles.! But - as I haven’t yet done it, and don’t want to tempt fate, I thought instead that ‘both sides now’ was a better way of looking at things today.

I realise the picture is a bit of an odd one but I did take it on my way home yesterday. I was cycling along and glimpsed up at what seemed to be very strange clouds. Now - before you say it, I’ll acknowledge that looking upwards when cycling is not particularly a good thing to do. So, realising this very quickly and when the opportunity arose, I stopped and pointed the camera directly upwards - not something I ever think of doing.

The picture doesn’t really pay justice to how dramatic they looked and the way my eyes were drawn to the fluffy vastness (two words not often used together?). I couldn’t help but hear the Joni Mitchell song in my head. It’s one of those songs which everyone tends to remember and although it has some excellent lines in it, we don’t often think about what they can mean. Looking at things from both sides, is one of those universal themes that we can understand. Life, as we know, tends to be made up of positives and negatives and the ability to recognise those in our own experiences and others makes empathy, understanding and humanity possible.

Clients at St Wilfrid’s Centre sometimes have clouds in their way or tears and fears but they are also able to feel proud, win and lose and hope that fairy tales become real. On reflection, thinking about the song, perhaps they can do that here because we let them accept that none of us ‘really know life at all’. There aren’t easy answers, there are both sides and up and down but above all we can all come to an understanding by having opportunities to be with others that ‘something’s gained, In living everyday.’

Rows and floes of angel hair, And ice cream castles in the air, And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way