Proud and pleased to have a mother with her head in clouds

My precious mother’s head has always been in the clouds. Her beautiful gray hair even looks a little like a cloud.

On a recent car trip with her she out of the blue announced, “there’s an elephant.” 

Well, I dang near wrecked the car looking for that elephant until I realized she was looking up at the puffy white cloud formations and picking out the ones that looked like an object or animal.

She’s always gazed at the clouds to see what they had to offer. I shouldn’t have been surprised, even though we were traveling back from her eye appointment. The woman has a great imagination that apparently came pre-installed when she was born.

A farm girl and a farm wife, she’s often spent time alone with only her thoughts and the New Mexico skies to entertain her.

Her siblings were considerably older than she was as she was growing up so she essentially was only around adults. They read to her and talked to her and treated her like an adult and her mind developed accordingly.

Somewhere I have a copy of a short story that my Uncle Dave wrote after a walk along a turn row road with this little girl who would become his sister-in-law. He examined the interesting questions this gal came up with as the two of them walked along with the family dog, Skipper.

The first time I read that story I wasn’t so sure it was about my mother, but after knowing her for more than 60 years I recognize her curiosity.

She’s always been great at reading books to little kids and talking with them about the subject and asking them questions. Even describing a scene when she only had her own imagination to rely upon.

She’s always been comfortable about us teasing her for finding cartoon animals in the sky. But she knows anyone she shares with is soon looking upward to find their own whales, horses or bears in the clouds.

We too often have our heads stuck inside our phones, computers or televisions where someone else’s imagination has already determined the storyline or painted the picture.

We would all be better off if we read a book where we had to picture the characters from the description in the narrative. Maybe we need to spend a little more time coloring in our own coloring book instead of accepting someone else’s determination of the colors in our world.

The greatest things ever achieved in our world have been accomplished by those who rely on their own imagination and creativity. Music, art, inventions all don’t happen without it.

I’m mighty proud to have a mother with her head in the clouds.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]