A View From The Clouds

"Get your head out of the clouds!"

Sister Mary Leocadia had occasion to bark that command to me repeatedly when I was her student in the 7th grade. I was a dreamer in her estimation and her mission, it seemed, was to bring me back down to where she thought I belonged.

Sister Leocadia was a no-nonsense, hard-nose, brass tacks kind of woman. I suppose my perceived dreaminess was a source of irritation to her. My propensity to see the possibility in all things grated on her nerves such that she availed herself of any opportunity to knock me back to reality... or rather hers.

The funny thing is that I am very much a realist and always have been. I always will be. It's my nature combined with an upbringing rooted in practicality. My parents didn't so much spin Fairy Tales for me growing up. They always presented the truth to me but in the gentlest of terms and with comfort. I was taught to face situations, accept news head on and squarely and to accept these situations with grace. I learned to see things as they were but I could also imagine what they could be. I learned to not just see endpoints but to see room. Room for possibility. This gift has turned out to be one of my greatest strengths at this stage of my life.

That grace to accept situations is a godsend. For even in news we don't want, in situations we would rather have be different, have them be more of what we'd hoped for, that grace lifts me. It lifts me all the way up into where Sister Leocadia saw as the clouds. But you see my feet are always planted firmly in reality, with my head and my heart residing above it all... seeing the possibilities. The possibilities I believe to be there.

Guess what Sister Leocadia...you may think my head is still in the clouds ... but you know what... I think the view is pretty great from up here.

Indeed.