Nephophobia- the fear of clouds

Building a cloud

Clouds have come to be associated with darkness, the foretelling of wind and rain. Writers use the pathetic fallacy to foreshadow fear and pessimism with the coming of rain clouds.

When I think of clouds, however, I think of the day I came home, on a plane, looking down on a blanket of fluffy clouds, turned pink by the setting sun. The sky was violet and I felt I could almost step out onto them and walk, feeling only cotton between by toes.

Berndnaut Smilde created his ‘Nimbus’ exhibit not based on the eerie chill clouds bring in the late evening, but on the simple whimsy of a solitary cloud in a faultless blue sky, a work of art so breathtakingly beautiful.

Today I told him that I would like a cloud, a cloud in my apartment. Maybe because I like the imperfect outline it brings, a jagged softness, or maybe I want to have a moment of happiness, the wisps of another time, floating in my sitting room.

I want my own Nimbus.

‘I will build you a cloud,’ he says, ‘and I will make it pink because I know pink makes you happy. But I will make it in a bottle, so that where ever you go, you can take the cloud.’

I think of suitcases spilling over with clothes, and on top of the mess, my cloud in a bottle. I think of setting it on my bedside table where ever I go. When I am sad I will hold it in my hands and remember a day when everything was right in the world and I was a lot happier than I am tonight.