Scream Softly at the Clouds

When I was five I spent a few days in Hospital, I was in a small private room and it was the first time I had ever been alone, away from home. I was very unhappy and homesick, but one day I was enthralled by some low, white fluffy clouds outside the window of the hospital which I could see from my bed. They were very low, it seemed as if I could open the window and reach out to hold them in my hand. These clouds stayed around for a few days and helped me cope.

About twelve years later I decided to learn to fly. I had never ever been up in a plane, let alone fly one, but I booked some lessons at the flying club in Cambridge and a few hours later I was “in control”. It was in a Cessena 150 and in a few seconds I was in the same cloud formations I saw as a very small boy – I remember flying through a small cloud and then I was above them looking down on the fields surrounding Cambridge, the clouds were my friends and in the hundreds of flights I have taken since then, all over the world, I have never lost my love of clouds.

I saw some other clouds last week, but these will not be so friendly, they were found on a MRI can I had of my brain and I am told this is not a good thing. Probably caused by years of high blood pressure, partly as a consequence of probably drinking too much and a rather “exuberant” life. This cerebral weather pattern signals a radical lifestyle change for me and starts a personal metronome. Each “tick” reminding me to do positive things and aim accurately at my targets while I can.