when i was a little girl, i would lay on my back in the grass for hours almost every summer day and look at the clouds.

they fascinated me.

white, clean, puffy, beautiful clouds.

my heart would soar with hope and faith, looking up into the blue manitoba sky and watching the shapes of the morning cotton-puff clouds, or the massive bubbling build-up of the inevitable thunderheads of those hot august afternoons.

today, out in the "country" (or what we here in this land call the province) i had just a bit of that same childhood inner joy- that shimmering dance of hope in the heart that is triggered by the beauty of nature.

everyone should be able to see from sky to sky...from horizon to horizon...once in a while.

it gives hope.

it makes you realize that a great hand designed the world around us...every blade of grass, every tiny field flower, every little creekbed, and every beautiful, white, fluffy cloud.