The Skies

Friday night as we perused the aisles of Walmart (because that’s what cool people do on Friday nights. . . or not), Charlie and Chanelle fell victim to the flashy packaging of the plastic/cellophane kites that were strategically placed in the center of the aisle. Can we buy one? they asked. I looked at the price, $4.95 and told them at that price the kites may not even hold up for the ride home. They continued their search and found the $9.99 kites and insisted that the ‘higher quality’ kites would be much better. As much as we try to teach them about the ploy of marketing, they are still lured by the bright packaging and the happy faces of the kids on the display box seemingly taunting them from the center of the aisle.

(I won’t discuss the photo printer I nearly purchased last week because of the “pretty” pamphlet that had arrived in my mailbox.)

Geniuses those marketers. Geniuses.

As we drove home that night, I warned the kids that the kites likely wouldn’t fly that evening. Charlie grabbed my phone and the tapped The Weather Channel app and insisted that it would work, the winds are 7 mph!

No luck on Friday.

*******

Late Saturday afternoon we were driving home from soccer games when Charlie grabbed my phone and again tapped The Weather Channel App. 10 mph, he declared. Again, I had the opportunity to rain on his parade. It’s not going to happen tonight, Bud, I told him.

It’s never going to be windy, he responded with his usual optimistic attitude. I rolled my eyes and reminded him that we live on top of a hill, It’s almost always windy, I told him.

No it won’t, he declared.

I know when to stop, but made a mental note for an “I told you so” later.

(Kidding.)

(Sort of.)

*******

Sunday afternoon was much the same as the previous days. Charlie grabbing my phone, seeing no wind, dropping his shoulder down to his knees and pretending that nothing more horrible could happen in the world. Constant staring at the trees in hopes of movement and sighing about the ‘investment’ he’d made, but can’t even use. Me reminding him that just a week ago it was freezing cold and snowing and now it is 70 and sunny. Let us not complain, I said.

*******

Sunday night came and the kites remained tucked away in the garage. Around 7 p.m. I pointed the kids toward the showers to prepare for Monday. Charlie raced to the shower first and the girls and I made our way to the front door to wait outside until it was their turn. When we stepped onto the porch, as if on cue, dark, luminous clouds rolled in and the wind began to blow with a fury. The still air began to whistle ferociously. In moments, the warmth in the air disappeared and was replaced with a crispness that reminded me of early fall. I watched as the girls ran around the yard and laughed in the wind.

Their hair danced with the air while they leapt high to see if the unseen force would take them into the sky. We yelled to each other over the sound of the wind and fought to stay upright against it’s force. The kites didn’t cross my mind until I stepped into the house to grab a jacket and almost ran into Charlie as he bounded down the stairs, taking two at a time. When his  eyes met mine, they were as bright and happy and one word escaped between his smiling lips, WIIIIIIIIINNNNNNND!!!!

In the time I grabbed my jacket and walked back out the door the kites were already flying in the air.

As I watched the scene unfold in front of me, I marveled at how quickly the skies can change. With one rush of the wind, blue skies are cast in gray and the entire world looks different. The sun disappears from our view and the long shadows that had peppered the pavement vanish as if a magician with a cape and top hat waved his wand. The trees that had been standing stoic and unmoving, suddenly come alive and wave their limbs as if dancing or fighting or fretting to the rhythm only they know. The world that seemed calm and safe and simple just a moment ago, now appears fierce, wild and untamable.

I stood back and  smiled as I thought about how much Charlie was like the sky. His mood, subjected to the winds force. No wind–shoulders sink a few inches, wind–shoulders held high and smiling face. In one whoooosh of the wind, his whole world looked different.

Is it really that simple? Is it really just Charlie?

Of course it’s not  only Charlie. How quickly my mood can change. In the blink of an eye, a good day is made bad by a distracted driver, an unkind word, or (tragically) no coffee on Monday morning. Without any warning, a glance at the clock can raise the decibel level of my voice from quiet to shouting in .02 seconds. (Whoosh) A button pressed on the dashboard plays a random  song from my senior year in high school and my lap is a puddle of tears as memories flood my mind. (Whoosh) And don’t even get me started on those Subaru commercials. In a moment, my light mood can become as dark and luminous as the clouds when things don’t go my way–or the way I think they are supposed to go. The rushing wind takes over and and I am tossed upside down like the leaves on the trees–following wherever the wind might take me–sometimes with no explanation at all.

As unpredictable as the weather.

Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. 

It is in my nature to want to wrap words around things. To explain everything. To make sense of all that I see in front of me–the things inside me.

*******

Sometimes, The Weather Channel App gets it wrong. Sometimes, we feel things for no other reason than we feel them. Our shoulders sink down to our knees and we have no explanation for it. There is no People Channel App that will tell us when the wind is going to blow–it just blows. (Let’s face it, those apps are often wrong, anyway.) Sometimes, I think, the only answer is to walk right into them. To allow all of it to rush at us and ride the waves as they come. Because just as the sky is always changing. . . so are we. . .

There is beauty in the changing. And there is grace.

Grace.

Whoosh. . .

Maybe it’s enough to wonder. To marvel at all the skies. To marvel at the people under the skies. To marvel at who we are. Who we are becoming.

Sometimes, there are just no words.

We are so much alike, aren’t we? The sky. People.

Untamable. Unpredictable.

Just as the sky can change on a dime. . .

So can we.

What a wonder. . .