The Clouds

Photograph by Traveler

My younger son and I shared a ride into Berkeley this morning. The clouds had put on a spectacular show in the sky. He asked me if I had my camera along. This is significant, as the two of them are usually rather sick of my carrying a camera everywhere to “capture the moments!” He fetched it from my purse and got busy capturing the amazing formation of the clouds. Around the windy bit of the freeway we take into Berkeley, as our angle kept changing and hills kept appearing and disappearing from view, he kept snapping pictures. I know I have told you before, but I can’t stop my astonishment every time I see him face his environment these days. He is cool, confident, and quiet as usual, but something has changed in him, making him softer, calmer, more peaceful, and a real treat to have around. He washes his own clothes, and is meticulous about getting to work and class on time. When I got home last night, he had cleaned his room and bathroom and had even swept the house—all a first-- in anticipation of my two older cousins who will be visiting this weekend. Something about him reminds me of when he was still an infant and I left him with his nanny to go to work everyday, rushing home to see him and hold him after work, looking carefully at his face and his body, knowing for sure that he had changed while I was gone. These days he is in another “growth spurt,” only this time his limbs and bones are not stretching and growing. His soul grows everyday, I think. Every time I see him at the end of the day, I swear he shows signs of growing wiser.