NEO was looking up at the clouds. There were amazing different shapes and sizes. The clouds looked like fluffy white marshmallows floating through the sky.
He played games with the clouds. He would try to watch one cloud for as long as he could. He realised that if he watched for long enough, it started to feel like that cloud was moving fast through the air like it had a life of its own.
As the breeze shifted, he felt it hit his body from different angles. He would see the clouds shift as well. Sometimes they would move slowly, and at other times they would speed up. If he didn’t focus on just one cloud, it would feel like the clouds weren’t moving at all.
His favourite game was to watch closely, to pick out a cool-looking cloud and really watch it. It always felt like it would speed up, like it had someone steering it, or a driver pushing it forward.
The clouds seemed to sing to NEO mellow songs of quiet happiness. They moved in a way that made his heart feel warm. These fluffy things... why were they here?
Sometimes NEO would start to pick out clouds that looked like dinosaurs or objects from his home. He would giggle while looking through the endless number of clouds in the sky and suddenly finding one that looked like a T-Rex trying to eat a big white marshmallow.
After a while though, NEO felt sad. He was missing the sun. He thought the sun had disappeared—that it was gone. He couldn’t find the sun anywhere. Where had it gone? Where did the sun run to? Did the wind push the sun so far away that NEO could no longer see it?
NEO began to really miss the warm rays of the sun that would hit his skin and radiate throughout his body. The sun would light NEO up with a feeling so cosy that it reminded him of his mum’s hugs.
How could the sun do this to him? Didn’t the sun know how much NEO needed him? How could it just disappear like that?
Then, slowly, a little ray of light came piercing through a thick cloud like a laser beam through the blue sky. NEO started to get excited.
“SUN, IS THAT YOU?”
The cloud began to shift, and the breeze around NEO picked up. He could feel the wind blowing into them. The thick forest of clouds began to move, as if they were in a beautiful symphony—all in sync with each other.
They began to go their own directions, and as they did, the rays of the sun kept getting brighter and brighter.
“SUN, IS THAT YOU?”
NEO couldn’t stop smiling. He started yelling and singing, “You didn’t leave me! You were there all along, hidden behind all those clouds.”
The sun was always shining. It had never left. It had nowhere to go. It was always radiating the love of its rays. The only thing that was in the way were the clouds.
Even with those big fluffy white clouds blocking the beautiful warmth of the sun, it didn’t mean that it wasn’t shining.
Our thoughts, our beliefs, our hate, our fear, our insecurities—they are like clouds. They are impermanent, and they can block our true, eternal, loving awareness. But that doesn’t mean our true self has disappeared.
One must reduce daily. To let go daily, in order to reach the deepest part of himself …
that which is always radiating.
Thanks for reading.
This little story is from my collection “The Boy Who Forgot His Name” — short stories for kids and adults, written to help you remember who you truly are… and follow your Dhamma.
If it stirred something in you, I share quiet reminders like this daily.
You can find me on Twitter: @mattrintranulux
Until the next one,
— Matt
Modern Monk
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— Matt
Modern Monk