We are members of the Cloud Appreciation Society, a UK-based organization with members all over the world.
The CAS manifesto states, in part:
We pledge to fight ‘blue-sky thinking’ wherever we find it. Life would be dull if we had to look up at cloudless monotony day after day.
It’s very true. Although we love blue skies, it’s the contrast that clouds provide that make the skies breathtakingly beautiful, whether it’s wispy patterns, thick storm clouds, rainbow clouds, or clouds bursting with magenta, orange, and gold as the sun filters through them as it rises or sets.
Anyone can be a cloudspotter. You just have to look up, no matter where you live or where you travel. We have sat in our backyard, quietly watching a puffy cumulus cloud grow and dissipate. We’ve pulled off to the side of the road to photograph the morphing of a rainbow cloud, and we’ve awoken to intense colors in Glacier National Park, Montana, and Kissimmee Prairie, Florida. We’ve spent a happy afternoon enjoying the beauty of Mt. Rainier accented by horizontal clouds stretching across its vertical, snow-covered peaks. And we’ve closed out our day watching the drama of a Rocky Mountain sunset or the sun descending through clouds to disappear in Lake Erie, leaving an afterglow of pink and crimson.
The CAS urges us all to
Look up, marvel at the ephemeral beauty, and always remember to live life with your head in the clouds!