Of Clouds and Silver Linings
A short story of hope in the midst of dark clouds
I had been told for years that every cloud has a silver lining. That statement though positive and encouraging is factually false. Look out, most clouds don’t have silver linings, so how do we live in a world of clouds without silver linings? There is one way.
Hear my story in its telling.
On the small Caribbean island of Grenada, I stood on the tiled balcony of a cliff-edge villa overlooking the Atlantic. My eyes were dry, clear with hope shinning through but my soul carried the weight of moist air. Life carries rain clouds, even in paradise.
Waking up to the view above, I stared at clouds every morning. And that was when I noticed. Not every cloud had a silver lining.
The proverbial saying was first coined by John Milton in 1634 his poem, Cosmus: A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle quoted here
Was I deceived, or did a sable cloud Turn forth her silver lining on the night?
It was then widely used in Victorian London and in 1840, by Mrs S. Hall, write the following in a review of the novel Marian; or, a Young Maid’s Fortunes, As Katty Macane has it, “there’s a silver lining to every cloud that sails about the heavens if we could only see it.” Widely used, the saying conveys the notion that, no matter how bad a situation might seem, there is always has some good aspect to it.¹
Untrue phrases that make you feel better
How do you feel about inspirational phrases or quotes that make you feel better, but are factually incorrect? Standing on that balcony, I saw darkened storm clouds sweeping rapidly, white clouds floating beneath blue sky.
The situation I was experiencing seemed to have no good aspects. The phrases had lost its power. I was in a rut, nature was in a rut. Silver linings were firmly in the land of imaginations, but I had reality to deal with.
Sometimes you have to disbelieve in order to believe
I have seen clouds with silver linings. A shimmering bright white glow shaping the edge of the cloud. ‘Why do some clouds have silver linings, and others don’t?’ I asked. Nature shifted, I got an answer and wrote a rhyme.
The bright edging streak glowed beyond clouds of hope The silver lining I saw was the sun behind the clouds
A Spiritual Truth
No cloud has a silver lining. None. The silver lining we see, does not belong to the cloud. It belongs to the sun. When a cloud is positioned in front of the sun, its light edges the clouds, giving the appearance of a silver lining.
Like the cloud, we are sometimes cloudy and dark. What if we changed our position And stood before the ‘Sun’
Like the cloud, I am nothing, a puff of moist air dampened by events darkened by thoughts In a situation with no way out
What if we changed our position And stood before the ‘Sun’
A glow would emerge From the true light The Son, his power is the lining of every cloud
I woke up the next day, and stood on the tiled balcony of a cliff-edge villa overlooking the Atlantic. My eyes were dry, clear with hope shinning through but my soul carried the weight of moist air. I stared at the clouds, smiled and said, half to myself.
“Find the sun and stand before it. A silver lining will surely emerge.”
¹ Website Source: https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/every-cloud-has-a-silver-lining.html
Postscript: I love how Nature pours out with life lessons. I was in Grenada on holiday, where I received really bad news. Spent days without hope, gazing into the clouds. Nature spoke and I was enlightened. I found the Son, and with him, a silver lining.
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