The cute little mountain town where I live is about 7,000 ft elevation.
Let me tell you what that means:
*Sometimes the temperature will increase or decrease 20 to 40 degrees, throughout the day.
*It feels 10 to 15 degrees cooler in the shade.
*The sun BEATS down. If you go out in the sun for more than 15 minutes at the height of the day, you can practically feel yourself burning lobster style.
*The clouds move fast! You better point out that fluffy white one shaped like a bunny super quick. It’s going to disappear into wisps of cotton after a couple of blinks.
*If you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes or drive 5 miles. For reals! Here’s an example: Once upon a time, we were driving home from the store and the sun was shining. Without any warning at all, it began pouring rain. Torrential! It was like we drove through a veil or something. We could literally see the line between sunny and rainy, right there in the middle of the road.
Crazy, right?
Crazy Cool!
Now that you know some background, let’s talk about cloud cover.
I was hiking on the San Fransisco Peaks with my family on a beautiful summer day in June. The temperature when we started was perfect, 70 degrees with a cool mountain breeze.
It was heavenly.
As the day, and the hike, went on, the sun rose in the sky, the breeze disappeared and we started removing layers.
(Mountain living 101: ALWAYS wear layers)
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
Which wasn’t a big hairy deal, until the trail jumped out of the shelter of the pine trees and we were facing about a mile of open land and praire grass.
All uphill.
I stopped at the edge of the trees and looked back at the forest, wondering if it would be worth it to turn around and go back the way we came, through the trees.
I knew it would take way longer if we did…
But the trail through the meadow looked like a dusty, barren wasteland!
I gave my feet, and my kids, a peppy pep talk and off we went into the blazing white sunshine.
About 2/3 of the way I seriously thought there was no way I was going to make it.
You know how your brain does that sometimes?
Silly brain.
I just kept putting one foot in front of the other, because that is how to climb a mountain, but it felt really, really hard.
Almost impossible.
Then, it got dark.
I looked up and there was one, big, fluffy, white cloud hovering all alone in the clear blue sky above my family.
That cloud was like magic!
We all straightened our backs, adjusted our packs, took a sip of lukewarm water and picked up our feet a little higher.
We could totally do it now.
And we did.
Cloud cover changed everything.
It changes everything.
Let’s be analogical! Let’s talk about life. When you are going through something stinkin’ hard, cloud cover would be the things or the people that bring you relief. Here are just a few ideas to get you started thinking:
*A smile from a stranger.
*An encouraging text or phone call from a friend.
*A song on the radio.
*A meaningful act of service.
When I am squelched by the heat of the mountain sun, I look for cloud cover, it is always there, and it is exactly the boost I need to keep climbing.
Then I try to be cloud cover for someone else.
