On one of my recent evening walks, I began to notice the clouds…I am normally a sky watcher anyway, so it’s instinctual for me to look up while walking. This particular evening, the clouds were mesmerizing and captured my interest. I carry my cell phone with me when I walk for various reasons, safety (because I walk in rural remote locations), If I would fall or need help (because I am clumsy) and for photo opportunities, much like the one that particular night. I started shooting pictures of the sky and couldn’t wait to open them on a larger screen. They were beautiful and the clouds looked like Angels following me, feather-like wings danced across the sky. I posted them on Facebook of course, because I thought they were so striking, and then I remembered something I had read some time ago. Our minds are programmed to see “things” in shapes. Faces on inanimate objects, clumps of leaves along the road that look like animals and clouds that look like Angles. It’s a little disappointing to hear that what we see is really not what we see. Sometimes science steals some of the innocence from our lives, but we do have to give some credit to this phenomenon simply because it can be proven. Here’s an example in my own life. I had a problem with my eyes a few years ago. There was a detachment that pulled on my retina causing a blind spot in the center of my vision. When I look at leaves however, my brain will automatically fill in the color of the leaf, filling the blind spot…my brain will not, however, fill in for things I have never seen. So I guess science is proven correct in that aspect. Being the sappy, sentimental person that I am, I still choose to believe that there are times when a sign or symbol is a message for me and for others. So I choose to combine science, faith and whimsy and I will continue to look upward for the beauty and mystery in the clouds.

A little scientific reading for you!

Pareidolia (/pærɪˈdoʊliə/ parr-i-DOH-lee-ə) is a psychological phenomenon in which the mind responds to a stimulus, usually an image or a sound, by perceiving a familiar pattern where none exists (e.g., in random data).

Common examples are perceived images of animals, faces, or objects in cloud formations, the Man in the Moon, the Moon rabbit, hidden messages within recorded music played in reverse or at higher- or lower-than-normal speeds, and hearing indistinct voices in random noise such as that produced by air conditioners or fans.^[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareidolia

This blog borrowed from a fellow blogger!