Gliders in the Sky: A Meditation on the Wonder of the Sky

Sometimes, when the day has worn itself thin and the world feels a size too small, I step outside and let my eyes climb the sky. The clouds are never in a hurry. They drift as if time itself has loosened its grip, as if the only thing required of them is to simply be.

I watch them gather in quiet conversation, then stretch apart like friends who know they’ll meet again. Their shapes shift with a kind of divine playfulness…one moment a cathedral, the next a feather, the next a memory I can’t quite name.

Trust the unseen current that moves us forward.

The Sky Becomes a Sanctuary

When the moon rises, brushing their edges in gold, the whole sky becomes a sanctuary. The clouds glow with a light that isn’t their own, and somehow that comforts me. It reminds me that we, too, can shine even when we feel dim. I love to get a blanket and lay on my deck beside the lake on a star-studded evening, the sky in all its wonder speaks to me, and it was from that place that I wrote Gliders in the Sky. Go here https://www.marlenetidwell.com/ to order your copy of Nature Sings.

And as they slip toward the horizon, dissolving into the blue beyond blue, I feel a tug of longing. Not to escape, but to rise. To move with that same grace. To trust the unseen currents that carry us forward.

The Canvas

Long before we had names for constellations or instruments to measure the weather, human beings tilted their faces toward the sky and felt a tug of recognition. The heavens have always been a canvas…one that shifts, dissolves, reforms, and surprises without ever repeating itself. In Gliders in the Sky, I invite you to pause long enough to notice the quiet choreography above us, to see clouds not as background scenery but as living metaphors for grace, mystery, and divine imagination.

Every cloud is a glider changing its form and face in the moments of time. They build and then collapse and form again into something different…each one with its own character.

In a world that often demands urgency, the clouds unhurried drifting becomes a gentle rebuke and a quiet invitation. The sky is not a blank expanse; it is a gathering place where light, shadow, color, and movement converse. When we look up, we are witnessing a kind of celestial fellowship. Enjoy the poem below and take time to watch the wonder of the sky!

Gliders in the Sky

 By hidden threads they glide,

Moving to and fro with no care.

By the mountain’s shaded side

Gracefully they wander through the air.

Clouds pure and true

Ride across the sky of blue.

Each one with a pretty face

Adorned in evening’s reflection.

Each one to find their place

Amid the stars of Heaven’s perfection.

Clouds wispy, soft and light

Riding through summer’s night.

They listen for the roar of thunder

To release rain from their folds.

They come together then go asunder

As the moon brushes their hems in gold.

Clouds coming my way

Rest above my head to stay.

With divine expression they take shape

To the patient and watchful eye,

With no notice they vanish to escape

The far horizon without a sigh.

Clouds fancy and free,

Where they go… I want to be.