August 31

The sunset sky this evening was stunning. Since Isaac was feeling a bit under the weather, my walk was a solo exercise, and I couldn't help but stare up at multi-hued clouds as I strolled along.

After the brilliant oranges and yellows gave way to the muted pinks and greys and instilled the skies with the quiet of coming nightfall, I remembered an important lesson. Clouds may seem largely colorless and even ugly during the daylight hours, but they're also the things that make the sunsets truly beautiful. The same can, of course, be said about the troubles of life. They're ugly stumbling blocks as we suffer through them, but inevitably, they wind up being part of a gorgeous bigger picture.

To borrow a concept from an old tune, if you ever wanna see a really spectacular sunset, you have to put up with a lot of clouds.