Have you ever taken a picture of something, and when you looked at it, you saw something else? That is what happened to me this weekend. And, as I did the supper dishes tonight, I had an epiphany.

Yesterday started with bright sunshine, beautiful blue skies and white, wispy clouds. I awoke with a song in my heart and a sense of joy: things were truly going my way. I owned the weekend: it was mine to use as I pleased. My time was truly mine.

And it felt liberating.

There are a lot of things that I needed to do this weekend, and I have done most of them. By giving myself the time to play yesterday, I was motivated and rested and ready to accomplish everything today. And I did.

I drove up into the foothills yesterday, to a man made lake behind an earthen dam. I was struck by the beauty of the barren landscape. It was a cold, cloudy day by then. Even on the valley floor, the sun had yielded to the clouds.

I went to a place where three rivers converge. In the spring, as the snow on the Sierra Nevadas melts, the rivers become swollen with the runoff and race downhill, toward the earthen dam. The lake becomes a lake, really, when the runoff reaches it. The rivers though narrow and small, compared to the great rivers in this world, reach a majestic stature and flow and swirl and foam as they race to meet the lake.

But now, there is very little water flowing. The landscape looks barren. Scrub oak trees, leafless and mostly lifeless, reach skyward with tangled, gnarled branches. Rocks are rounded and smooth, following eons of being affected by the flowing waters of the swollen rivers. They sit tall, and dry, on the forlorn riverbed.

After taking lots of pictures, and walking along the road in the day use area, I was cold and headed back to my car to come home. I kept thinking about the river and the snow. Hoping that this will be a normal snow year, and a normal rainfall year. And the river can flow and the landscape will be green and lush, instead of gray and barren.

Once home, I uploaded the photos to my web photo account and started editing them. And I was struck by what I saw. I had been looking at the land and the river, and there, in the sky were the most beautiful clouds. With any sort of good fortune, those clouds will dump moisture on the area.

And tonight, as I thought about it, I was struck by the similarities of nature to human life. Sometimes I have felt like my own existence was gray and barren, and devoid of much-needed nourishment. And there are clouds; dark, ominous clouds looming high above me in the afternoon sky.

I have always loved the sunshine. Blue skies and bright sunshine make me happy. Everything looks better to me in the sunshine. I learned something important yesterday: sunshine is important, but sometimes we need the clouds, too.

Yes, I know it's not that simple. And I know I couldn't live somewhere with more rain than sun. But I also know that, in order to thrive in the sunshine, I have to be nourished by the rain. That's what life is all about: balance.

And rainbows....

Cali