Every day I watch a cloud for five minutes. This is harder than you might think, especially if you are a person like me who is prone to distraction. Two years ago, when I first began this daily cloud-watching discipline, I set my cell phone alarm and turned my sights skyward. When the alarm when off, I was in the garden on my hands and knees weeding.

   It's taken a while to focus on one thing--one moving and constantly changing thing-- for five minutes, but it is so rewarding once you get the hang of it. Once you tell your body to stay still. Once you convince your mind to stop wandering.

   On a gentle southeast breeze, here is five minutes in the life of a little cumulus cloud yesterday: