biggest meanest cloud in the sky, three thousand feet tall, bursting up white smoke from hell. "The one over the silo, yonder," I said. "The one that's going black now."
He looked at me in silence. "Why is it you hate me?"
"It's because I like you, Don, that I ask these things." I smiled. "You need challenge. If you'd rather, I could pick something smaller . . ."
He sighed again and turned back to the sky. " I'll try. Now, which one?"
I looked, and the cloud, the monster with its million tons of rain, was gone; just an ungainly blue-sky hole where it had been.
"Yike," I said quietly.
"A job worth doing . . ." he quoted. "No, much as I would like to accept the praise which you heap upon me, I must in all honesty tell you this: it's easy."
He pointed to a little puff of a cloud overhead. "There. Your turn. Ready? Go."
I looked at the wisp of a thing, and it looked back at me. I thought it gone, thought an empty place where it was, poured visions of heat-rays up at it, asked it to reappear somewhere else, and slowly, slowly, in one minute, in five, in seven, the cloud at last was gone. Other clouds got bigger, mine went away.
"You're not very fast, are you:" he said.
"That was my first time! I'm just beginning! Up against the impossible . . . well, the improbable, and all you can think to say is I'm not very fast. That was brilliant and you know it!"
"Amazing. You were so attached to it, and still it disappeared for you."
"Attached! I was whocking that cloud with everything I had! Fireballs, laser beams, vacuum cleaner a block high. . ."
"Negative attachments, Richard. If you really want to remove a cloud from your life, you do not make a big production out of it, you just relax and remove it from your thinking. That's all there it to it. "
A cloud does not know
why it moves in just such a
direction and at such
a speed,
was what the handbook had to say.
It feels an impulsion. . . this is
the place to go now. But the sky knows the reasons and the patterns
behind all clouds,
and you will know, too, when
you lift yourself high enough
to see beyond
horizons.
11
You are
never given a wish
without also being given the
power to make it true.
You may
have to work for it,
however
We had landed in a huge grazing place next to a three acre horse-pond, away from towns, somewhere along the line between
Illinois
and
Indiana
. No passengers; it was our day off, I thought.
"Listen, he said. "Don't listen. Just stay there quiet and watch. What you are going to see is not a miracle. read your atomic-physics book. ..a child can walk on water."
He told me this, and as though he didn't notice the water was even there, he turned and walked out some yards from shore, on the surface of the horse-pond. What it looked like, was that the pond was a hot-summer mirage over a lake of stone. He stood firm on the surface, not a wave or ripple splashed over his flying
He looked at me in silence. "Why is it you hate me?"
"It's because I like you, Don, that I ask these things." I smiled. "You need challenge. If you'd rather, I could pick something smaller . . ."
He sighed again and turned back to the sky. " I'll try. Now, which one?"
I looked, and the cloud, the monster with its million tons of rain, was gone; just an ungainly blue-sky hole where it had been.
"Yike," I said quietly.
"A job worth doing . . ." he quoted. "No, much as I would like to accept the praise which you heap upon me, I must in all honesty tell you this: it's easy."
He pointed to a little puff of a cloud overhead. "There. Your turn. Ready? Go."
I looked at the wisp of a thing, and it looked back at me. I thought it gone, thought an empty place where it was, poured visions of heat-rays up at it, asked it to reappear somewhere else, and slowly, slowly, in one minute, in five, in seven, the cloud at last was gone. Other clouds got bigger, mine went away.
"You're not very fast, are you:" he said.
"That was my first time! I'm just beginning! Up against the impossible . . . well, the improbable, and all you can think to say is I'm not very fast. That was brilliant and you know it!"
"Amazing. You were so attached to it, and still it disappeared for you."
"Attached! I was whocking that cloud with everything I had! Fireballs, laser beams, vacuum cleaner a block high. . ."
"Negative attachments, Richard. If you really want to remove a cloud from your life, you do not make a big production out of it, you just relax and remove it from your thinking. That's all there it to it. "
A cloud does not know
why it moves in just such a
direction and at such
a speed,
was what the handbook had to say.
It feels an impulsion. . . this is
the place to go now. But the sky knows the reasons and the patterns
behind all clouds,
and you will know, too, when
you lift yourself high enough
to see beyond
horizons.
11
You are
never given a wish
without also being given the
power to make it true.
You may
have to work for it,
however
We had landed in a huge grazing place next to a three acre horse-pond, away from towns, somewhere along the line between
Illinois
and
Indiana
. No passengers; it was our day off, I thought.
"Listen, he said. "Don't listen. Just stay there quiet and watch. What you are going to see is not a miracle. read your atomic-physics book. ..a child can walk on water."
He told me this, and as though he didn't notice the water was even there, he turned and walked out some yards from shore, on the surface of the horse-pond. What it looked like, was that the pond was a hot-summer mirage over a lake of stone. He stood firm on the surface, not a wave or ripple splashed over his flying
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