I have loved clouds ever since I was a little girl. Once I tried to paint clouds. I remember my grade school oil painting of clouds and angels with a blue ladder to the Heavens. Clouds are amazingly unique in color, size, and shape. Some clouds float through the air. We fly through the clouds in airplanes. I love to ride in a plane by the window seat, listening to music and admiring the clouds… realizing that I am above the clouds, or on top of the clouds.

It hardly ever rains in California so today when I took a walk I looked up at all the clouds. Some of my photos are included below. Looking at all the clouds made me think:

How seldom in our life do we look up?

Why do we spend more time looking down?

Right now I invite you to take a moment and help me think of all that we do to LOOK UP?

Airplanes, birds, clouds, and rainbows are all UP… thinking of sports I thought of shooting basketballs, hitting baseballs… We look up sometimes when we pray, or when we offer praise to God…. some people look up and raise their hands when they sing….

Unfortunately I think we spend more time looking down. We look at our computers, our cell phones, reading books, watching where we step, especially in the winter months…. thinking of sports I thought that the game of football is looking down more than up (except for kicking a goal)… I thought of soccer as maybe “looking neutral”, not up or down.

We often ask each other “What’s up?”. Sometimes we are unkind to each other and say, “Up yours!”

Overall, as we reflect on gratitude, it seems we should spend more time “Looking Up”. What do you think?

This is #gratitudelite.