"Sometimes I go about pitying myself, and all the while I am being carried across the sky by beautiful clouds.” - Ojibwe proverb
—Nefelomanzia, said the man, it’s a Greek word, nefele means cloud and manzia, to foretell, nefelomanzia is the art of predicting the future by observing the clouds, or rather, the form of the clouds, because in this art, form is substance, and that’s why I’ve come on vacation to this beach, because a friend from the air force who deals with meteorology assured me that in the Mediterranean there’s no other coast like this one where clouds form on the horizon in an instant. And as quickly as they take shape they dissolve again, and it’s right in that instant that a real nefelomant must practice his art, to understand what the shape of a certain cloud foretells before the formation dissolves in the wind, before it transforms into transparent air and turns to sky.
- Antonio Tabucchi, "Clouds," translated by Martha Cooley & Antonio Romani
Image: Gilda, the 23-kiloton air-deployed nuclear weapon detonated on July 1, 1946 during Crossroads Able.
Every year, as summer comes to a close and the trees start to turn, I dream of finally becoming a really impressive cold-weather dresser: the kind of girl who wears a coat and a scarf and boots and yet magically somehow doesn't look like she's given up/is maybe wearing pajamas beneath that parka. It's a big dream, and one I don't ever seem to realize.
(Sorry, we couldn't help the title).
As we really start feeling the closing in of the daylight hours (yikes!), our Silver Linings Playlist is here to help, and also to make you feel a little bit like how we imagine J. Law feels 99% of the time.
Image: Romy Schneider
We toyed with the idea of spending the whole month just talking about clouds, but in the end that seemed somehow… limiting. Or gloomy. It hit a little too close to home. So off we set into October, to spend 31 days meditating on clouds' optimistic counterpoints, their SILVER LININGS. Not so much the playbook type, but more kind that highlights a sable cloud. Ok, or maybe both.
Image: Fornasetti wallpaper via Milk Concept
While we are wholeheartedly in favor of the loveliest night things money can buy, and the crisp, perfect sleep they afford, there is an equally important place in our hearts and beds for the softest, oldest, humanest and most comforting ones, as well.