Wheat Fields at Auvers Under Clouded Sky, 1890
“From the point of view of the sky,
life is just a passing of clouds.”
(Read somewhere)
Maybe the sky, from its perspective, couldn’t recognize if what was passing by was a crocodile, a man swimming or a dragon.
Variations on the same cloud, according to the points of view of my six-year-old grandson, my ten-year-old nephew and mine (age indefinite).
We call it the Cloud Challenge. We photograph and share an interesting cloud and see what it suggests to us. Then, we have a short and productive discussion.
Sometimes, I need to make an exercise in abstraction to enter into the infinite imagination of children. I confess that it was hard for me to discover the crocodile and the man swimming, backstroke, to be more precise.
In the end, this “cloud sharing” with my little ones reminds me that, there is always another way of seeing things, another point of view.
And it’s not that easy.
Sometimes, or rather almost always, what is foreign to us is incomprehensible.
There are many examples, but I don’t want to get into depths. This is a game of imagination and laughter.
Perhaps this week, in our sunsets, we will see polar bears, penguins, flying camels and even Superman.
I only hope that one day my grandchildren and nephews, when they look up to their skies, wherever they are, will remember me as the funny grandmother and aunt who encouraged them to look, not only at the clouds, but beyond…
Meanwhile, from our earthly point of view, we laugh….
“When the night is serene I look at the sky.
It never ceases to amaze me
how many points of view are there.”
Wislawa Szymborska
(UCAB 1985).
Escritora y aprendiz de poeta por vocación.
Desde muy joven participó en talleres de escritura creativa en el CELARG, Caracas.
Sus ficciones fueron publicadas en la antología Voces Nuevas (1990-91), y
más adelante su testimonial, Existe la Luz (1995).
De su paso por la ingeniería surgieron sus Cuentos de Oficina (1997), otra manera de ver al mundo corporativo. Entre sus últimas publicaciones se incluyen sus
reflexiones sobre el duelo, Hopecrumb (2020) y “The Adventures of
Chispita” (2021), cuento infantil, una alegoría de la vida en el vientre materno.
Hoy en día comparte sus “meditaciones impulsivas” desde Calgary, Canadá, ciudad donde reside.
leonorcanada@gmail.com