The Cloud factory

---

---

Seeing things with new eyes

There is a paper mill nearby our Finnish summer home. Not the most beautiful building in town, and sometimes the smell coming our way from the factory is not so sweet.

It has been that way for as long as I can remember.

But, this summer, as we were out on one of our morning walks with some of our family, I began to see it with entirely new eyes.

Our granddaughter, Cassie, four years old, was along for the walk. When we got close to the paper mill, she saw the smoke billowing out of the chimney and exclaimed with great wonder, ” Oh, look! There´s the cloud factory!¨

I only saw what I’ve always seen, a paper mill, but Cassie, with her ”new eyes,” saw something totally different.

In her eyes, it was something beautiful because this must be where all the fluffy, white clouds are made.

This made me think. How often do I look around in my life with zero anticipation, expectation, and wonder because I’ve seen it so many times before?

Imagine all the exciting and beautiful things already there if I only dare to open myself up to see them with new eyes.

So, as the fall comes closer and parts of life return to what we did before our summer vacation, I want to try to see the world around me with new eyes as much as possible.

Because I believe that in the midst of the ordinary, all the stuff we have seen so many times before, there is still much more to discover and explore.

Maybe you feel that way too? Wouldn´t that be exciting?

And as far as our family goes. Jakobstad doesn´t have a paper mill anymore, it has a cloud factory! And all of a sudden, the world became a little more beautiful!