The clouds and I

Often when I wake up in the middle of the night I don’t always know where I am. While the name of the place isn’t that much of a big deal, as most places don’t even have a name, it’s by far more interesting that I don’t remember how it looks like outside my tent. So it happened a few nights ago. I chose a spot with mountains to my left and to my right, ahead of my was a beautiful view into a valley and behind me was flat meadow. The view into the valley was a long way down and it was a nice downward curve. That already gave me the option to either feel like the little prince on a tiny planet or like a giant on earth. As it was very windy and cold I didn’t bother to spend too much time enjoying this scenery while there was still light and crawled into my sleeping bag inside my tent. Being exhausted from the day I soon fell asleep. A few hours later, it was already dark and I assumed middle of the night, I woke up to contribute to waters’ eternal cycle. It was still very windy outside when I opened my tent and stepped outside. I had completely forgotten where I was and was fully surprised to see majestic mountains to both sides of me, the long, open meadow around me leading into the valley in front of me. The night-sky revealed cloud-formation on two levels. The upper lever was occupied by slow-moving huge clouds while the lower lever where smaller scattered clouds flying by with high speed. A few open spots offered a view to the almost full moon and the stars and their ambient light added just perfectly to the overwhelming feeling. There I was, standing puzzled and speechless looking at the mind-blowing scenery incapable of grasping the input my body was receiving. From one moment to the next I zoomed out, watched myself from above as I was flying with the clouds. This feeling of freedom is beyond all meanings of words. But after an unmeasured time-span I had to return. I walked back to my tent, cold, looking forward to my sleeping bag; I never felt so small.