Sometimes I try to catch a glimpse of who my true “self” is underneath the everchanging circumstances of my life.  Try as I might, it is like attempting to grasp a cloud in my hand.  For I find that in the timeline of my life, there is a piece of me that remains constant like the solid mountains in the distance, while there are other parts of me that are everchanging like the clouds that form in the sky.  Hints of who I am are reflected in the things and the people that I love.  Hints found in a snippet of poetry, in the cool breeze across the water, in the laughter of my children.  Places, people, and stories all jumbled into one “self” that is everywhere and nowhere all at once.

Finding My “Self” Amidst the Clouds
By Krista Longeway

Fluffy white clouds form, floating in the sky
Above the distant blue of the mountains
Their solid strength standing tall and still 
Amidst a moving cloudscape
Reflected in the water below

The vast expanse of the sky 
Neither a place nor a destination
Found everywhere and nowhere all at once
The clouds floating aimlessly on the wind
Forming pictures, drifting, then forming again

The water below, a silent mirror
Reflecting the distant mountains on its clear surface
Like the pieces of me that remain constant
From one year to the next
Solid and still like the mountain

And yet, in the timeline of my life
The vast beauty of my “self” 
And the circumstances that shape who I am
Are always shifting like clouds drifting in the sky
This “self” that is everywhere and nowhere all at once