The Other Side of Cloudy

Prompts for the Promptless:  Silver Lining  “Silver Lining” is a prospect of hope or comfort in a gloomy situation.

A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn’t see the clouds at all – he’s walking on them.  ~Leonard Louis Levinson

In every difficult situation there is always a brighter prospect, some comforting possibility, an element of hope.  And in every crowd there’s always that one annoying person who points out some tiny bright spot in the midst of a disaster.  Don’t you just hate that, when you’re wallowing in the pits of despair and some positive happy person tries to cheer you up?  I’ve been that aggravating individual who says the exact wrong thing, trying to help, meaning well.

Empathy then points out to me that this sad and grieving person already knows deep down about the silver lining, and can almost see it, but right now being pathetic and wretched and miserable just feels so good.  I think it’s okay to let people sit on the gloomy side of a cloud for a while, because If we didn’t have a grand funk now and then, how would we ever recognize happy?

But, sorry, if that big black cloud hangs over your head for way too long, somebody has to kick you out from underneath it.  And what better way to do that than with some great cloud quotes??  Okay, there are probably better ways, but this is all I could come up with.  And there’s even a bright side to THIS, because I had saved at least ten more really sappy ones that I deleted.  You’re welcome.

“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.”  ~  Rabindranath Tagore (Stray Birds)

“It is a very beautiful day.  The woman looks around and thinks: ‘there cannot ever have been a spring more beautiful than this.  I did not know until now that clouds could be like this.  I did not know that the sky is the sea and that clouds are the souls of happy ships, sunk long ago.  I did not know that the wind could be tender, like hands as they caress – what did I know – until now?” ~ Unica Zürn

“Thirty-nine years of my life had passed before I understood that clouds were not my enemy; that they were beautiful, and that I needed them. I suppose this, for me, marked the beginning of wisdom. Life is short.”  ~ Iimani David

“The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn’t it be?–it is the same the angels breathe.” ~ Mark Twain (Roughing It)

“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.” ~ Gavin Pretor-Pinney (The Cloudspotter’s Guide)

Silver Lining Clouds (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Though outwardly a gloomy shroud,
The inner half of every cloud
Is bright and shining:
I therefore turn my clouds about
And always wear them inside out
To show the lining.
~ Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler