Maliit - Little Cloud

A tiny spec of dust floats through the morning sky and notices himself getting wet. Soon he’s part of a full blown storm cloud and doesn’t quite know how to take it.

Think of something little �"

Do you have it? What is it you’re thinking of? A stick or a leaf? Maybe a pebble? Ok, so, something like that would make sense because, well, they are quite a lot smaller than we are.
But there’s a profound principle at play here and it’s this: Littleness is relative.
Those things, the stick, the leaf and the pebble, they’re all small to us but to a leaf, the stick might be quite big but the pebble is still small. And if you got down and asked the pebble what was small, he might pause for a moment and start imagining a drop of dew or a tiny grain of sand. Something like that.

Now imagine for a moment that we could ask the sky. The unimaginable height, the vast width, containing every colour we could ever think of, holding every flying creature, every drop of evaporated moisture, every speck of dust. The Earth’s life force, Its protector It’s blanket, It’s shield enveloping not only the entire planet but it’s entire existence, having done so since the beginning of time and continuing to do so till the end.
Imagine we could ask this sky to think of something little.
What would it show us?
_________________________________________________________________________


The Sun rose and called in the colours. First, Violet and Blue, then Red and Orange and eventually, like reluctant teenagers, yellow and Green. As they woke they began to play and race across the surface of the world, infusing life into the trees and hills, bouncing through the tiny drops of dew on the riverbanks and fields and drying them up as they went, then firing off in every imaginable direction to continue their fun. And as they energized the planet, their subtle warmth and wonder began its work high above.


A small patch of air, glistening with tiny crystals of earth, began to warm. As the little particles all reached and spun themselves around, vying for the best light, the best colours, one little crystal floated humbly into the shade of the others. Maliit loved the colours, but rather than striving for them, fighting with the others for the best rays, he liked to just watch them. Seeing them paint the world, gradually filling the dark with complex patterns and shapes, and in their time, each in their own way, saturating the world with beauty. He would get his light in time. He never missed out. There was always plenty around.

But there was something different about this morning. Something else was at play. Subtle at first but something that would change Maliit in ways far beyond what he thought was possible.

As he watched the Earth peacefully fill with colour, the other dust around him impatiently zooming around again like every other day, Maliit felt unusually cool. In fact, just a bit cooler than the others around him. A slight panic filled him as his attention went to his smooth sides. There was moisture there. Water! Maliit hadn’t felt this before.
He had only just enough time to think, “What’s this? What’s happening?” before a moment later, he was properly wet. He was no longer just another little spec of dust. In that small moment, in that tiny drop of time, Maliit had transformed. He’d become a little drop of water. The first little drop of water.

The other particles looked around, surprised to find this new, strange thing in their midst. And one by one, their attention now diverted from the colours, they started floating around Maliit. As they passed his growing shadow, feeling the coolness he cast, they also started to gather moisture. And as an increasingly bewildered Maliit hung in their midst and spun there slowly, more and more little particles swung around him, gathering their own moisture and themselves becoming tiny drops of water.

Soon the little group of drops grew so much that the light itself began to take notice. Some of the colours that were still flitting around the ground looked up in excitement from their work on the earth and, finding a new canvas to play with, soared up into the midst of this new cloud. They found great amusement looking at each other through all these tiny clear lenses and they started grouping together, soaring through the middle of each one and shooting off in different directions out the other side. The colours loved this so much; their little cluster of spectral play, so fine and so fast together they were only visible as a single bright white against the rich blue Sky around them.


The Sky looked down on Maliit and smiled. He’d seen this before, many times. It gave him great joy to see little Maliit now take his turn as the cloud founder. And as he watched the little cloud begin to grow and the colours spread through and light it up he leaned back, and waited.


Maliit was a quickly becoming overwhelmed. This is not how he thought his day was going to go. Ever since he’d left the ground, picked up from the other side of the river by a kind gentle breeze, he’d watched the Earth go by, amazed at the wonders below. Some days he was quite low, almost brushing the tops of the river red gums and other days he was lifted so high, spiraling up on thermals, the hot air twisting off the red earth into the depths of the sky where it sought the cooler temperatures. Being up this high amazed Maliit. He never knew how big the world was until he saw it from up there. Looking down he felt like he could see right out to the very edge of everything. He also looked up and out at the sky when he was up there, so deep, so blue, almost violet.
‘What’s out there? It just seems to go on forever’, He would think. And as this thought still hung in his mind, he’d gradually float back down again. And as he descended he wondered if the other dust particles thought about these things.

But this particular morning, these thoughts of beauty and awe completely escaped him. As he watched the maelstrom of tiny droplets rushing around him, the chaotic crush growing more and more by the moment, he noticed a shift. Previously, he was always happy being in the background, letting the other particles race around and compete with each other for the best bit of colour. They’d gather their own little groups and gangs and together sweep other particle gangs out of their way. It was a chaotic, competitive world Maliit was very happy not being a part of, but now, as the gangs closed in and discovered this new moist world, the domination was happening all over again, but this time it was focused all around Maliit. He watched in panic as the gangs grew and grew in number and billowed their way up and out, exploding into the blue sky around them, and then finally completely engulfing Maliit in their grimy shadow.

In desperation, Maliit glanced around him, hoping to find just a tiny gap, a tiny reprieve in the ever growing whirlwind, hoping to see just a hint of blue. And as a fresh wave of droplets rammed past him Maliit was thrown off to the side, tumbling over and over. That’s when he saw it. Like a flash of opal in stone, there it was, a bright blue eye of sky. It was only small but it was a gap, and Maliit called all the wind to his back. As it came he flew at the gap with every ounce of energy he had.


Maliit looked up at the monstrous morphing wall above him. The side of the cloud had grown so huge that he couldn’t see the top. Couldn’t even fathom how far the top was away from him. In a strange combination of awe and disgust he thought ‘How could they have become so big? Did they even know what they were doing? Do they see what they’ve become?’ All Maliit wanted now was to drift away and start the day over again, warm in the low wind, back near the rivers edge again. He stared out and just as he was about to let himself fall, he heard a voice. A deep, deep voice. A voice that made the giant cloud behind him pale into insignificance and that took up his entire existence, like the very air around him.

“Hold fast, Maliit. They still need you.” He felt the words in the core of his being. Like vibrations starting on the outside and rippling tiny waves through to every edge of his new watery self. As he spun around, looking for the source of the voice, Maliit felt a strange sensation. It was like something touched him. A warmth, and yet at the same time fiery cold completely engulfed him, transfixed him. It was comforting, strengthening, empowering even. A moment before he was dejected, spent, but now, somehow he felt energized and ready for, well, Maliit didn’t really know what he was ready for.

He tried to respond but found himself completely at a loss for words. ‘Hold fast? Who still needs me?’ He thought. Finally he was able to put words together and spluttered out “Who are you? Who’s talking to me?”
“You’ve found yourself in the middle of a very uncomfortable situation, Maliit. I understand, and I know exactly how you’re feeling right now and I’m sorry I couldn’t forewarn you. You’ve seen the impatient wanting of the other particles ever since you can remember, haven’t you, but you’ve never experienced aggression and greed on such a magnitude before. I have. I’ve seen this same thing happen and sometimes so much more. I assure you, as unpleasant as it is for small, gentle souls like you it’s not unusual, and for the world to continue working like it should, sometimes, it’s necessary.”
At this, In Maliit’s little mind thoughts crashed and compounded so fast that his voice couldn’t keep up.
“Necessary? Wha… I mean, why… Wh..Who are you?’
The sky gave a small laugh sending a fresh wave of vibrations through the tiny drop. He liked Maliit. Most would have fled in fear of his voice, but here he was, one of the smallest things on the planet, his curiosity holding him to his spot.
“Maliit, I am the Sky. I’ve been watching you for a while now, ever since you were picked up from the Earth. I watched you searching into me and I heard your questions. You’re different to most. They don’t look into my depths, they don’t wonder and see beauty with the amazement and awe that you do. They don’t feel what you feel.”

“Before you were lifted you were part of Earth herself, and in a very real way you still are. The life Earth gave you when the Wind lifted you from her was different to other particles. That’s why you see things the way you do. And, although you didn’t know it at the time, you were given a specific purpose, a task that you are now about to fulfill. But you need to hold fast. Maliit, gather your strength and go back in. They still need you.”

Maliit didn’t say anything after that. Partly because his small mind was trying to wrap itself around the idea of the Earth with a tiny little Maliit shaped gap in it, but mostly because he felt really scared. I mean, kind of afraid but not afraid at the same time. He found this sensation really hard to understand. He’d just met the Sky. The Sky. Here was real validation of his tiny thoughts. He’d known there was more out there. When he looked into the edge of blue, seeing slight hues of violet streaming from the highest parts. And that Sky had just spoken to him. Gave him a message. Gave him a task.

Maliit turned and looked again into the dark, churning mass that was now the rapidly growing cumulonimbus cloud, exploding higher and higher. He thought of the gangs shoving and forcing their way to the top, competing to be the highest, the biggest, the strongest. And as he hung there, suspended in this unreal, animation of time and space, his resolve grew and hardened. He started back in.

Immediately he was battered by the speeding particles all around him, scuffled and shoved about, but his mind was set and he persistently made his way towards the centre of the cloud. When he finally started getting closer, he noticed something he didn’t see before. Among the pushy arrogant gangs that were fighting for the top there were others. A small group of new droplets. They weren’t flurrying around, weren’t competing with the others for sheer mass and size, but simply being right there with Maliit, following him and occasionally glancing nervously at him as if waiting for him to do something. Maliit instantly felt a closeness towards this young group and in that moment, as he felt the caress of a gentle warm breeze against his side, he knew what he needed to do.
And he’d do it with them.

The centre of the cloud had become a raging upward force, filled with the gangs manically forcing their way to the top. One such gang, forced down the side of the cloud by the mere magnitude of the top of the storm were now focused entirely on rising up through the centre again, mercilessly shoving any droplets that got in their way. As they rose, a tiny droplet, driven by a rogue sideways blast of wind smashed into the side of their group. The effect was not really huge because the drop was quite small, but it was enough that two of the gangs members, lean but already gaining in strength and size, bumped into each other, and in a confused and enraged moment, they morphed into one big, heavy drop. The rest of the gang, oblivious to their members predicament kept on up without looking back but the large drop, it’s weight too much to continue upwards, hung for a moment, then began a gradual descent.

The small droplet that caused the fuss quickly made its way back to Maliit and his small number of friends as they all watched the obese drop fall. On it’s way down it pummeled and crashed into other gangs, mostly deflecting but sometimes morphing other small drops into itself, the whole time gathering in size and losing more and more control as it sped towards the bottom of the cloud. As it finally fell out of sight, Maliit grabbed the excited little droplet and with a contagious enthusiasm, beamed at him and said “That was perfect!” The little drop beamed with pride. He’d loved Maliit’s idea and was so excited by it that he demanded to be the first to try to bump the rising gang drops together, and when Maliit finally gave in and let him go it had paid off more than anyone could have hoped. Maliit looked around at his new cohort and feeling a growing sense of gratitude and camaraderie said, “Ok, so, now everybody, lets get in there and make them fall.”

He led them all in to the rising fury, smashing their way through the gangs and one by one the confounded drops began to drop. With their growing confidence the small renegade group grew in strength and the force that they hit the rising gangs increased. Before long, they were surrounded by falling drops.

Maliit, having pummeled a few gangs by now and, starting to feel the energy rising in him, rounded and prepared for another onslaught. But as he looked and took aim he noticed someone looking straight back at him. It was one of the gangs leaders. The gang had been watching more and more large, struggling drops falling back down all around them and, when they saw Maliit and his crew shooting around and causing mass confusion they stopped short on their way up the raging pillar. One by one, his members took up post behind their leader and began to stare at Maliit. ‘Oh no’, Maliit thought. ‘They’ve caught on. They know what we’re doing.’ Maliit felt panic starting and began to move backwards. ‘What now?’ he thought as he retreated, but then in a flash of realization he remembered, “Hold Fast. They still need you.”

‘They still need me’, Maliit thought. I can’t stop now.’

Reality slowed down.

Shimmering drops circled slowly around the scene. The gangs falling around the outside of the cloud and rising through the centre all seemed to be happening in a slow, eternal flow. Around them Maliit could see the his crew, growing in strength and confidence in syrupy slow motion and with unnatural momentum, causing particle after particle to morph, join and begin their descent. It was a moment that lasted a lifetime, a moment filled with fear, with uncertainty, but gradually, like an eclipse, Maliit was also filled with a powerful sense of confidence, peace and a profound, deep knowing. Energy rose.

The next bit happened in a fraction of a second, too fast for anyone to really see what actually took place, so I’ll lay it out for you.

The light, still shooting around the cloud, felt the energy rise around Maliit and the gang. Light, being barely affected by the slowing down of reality seemed to gather around the scene frighteningly fast. More and more light squeezed into that tiny space and within that instant it took them to gather, the blinding light exploded into a flash that filled the entire cloud. Maliit and the gang were momentarily lit up, their determined expressions frozen in time while droplets all around the scene were flashed into a 3 dimensional image of chaos and action. Distracted and excited by the scene they had just caused the light then shot off into the cloud again and continued its energetic fun.

The flash of lightning sent a surge of confidence through Maliit and he made his move. He called the wind to his back and flew towards the gang. And in response, the gang leader, followed by his raging troop, rushed at Maliit.


It didn’t happen as expected. Things like this usually don’t.


High above, unnoticed by Maliit or the gang, Maliit’s little friend, the one that started the onslaught, was working madly making drop after drop start to fall. Timing, being the funny thing that it is, worked it out that after just a few seconds, the descending path of the falling raindrops would just so happen to exactly intersect the forward accelerating path of each one of the gang members flying towards Maliit. One by one, their leader oblivious to their demise, the gang members received a great big, wet drop falling fast from above causing them to instantly morph with it. Heavy with water and downward momentum, each in their turn, they disappeared into the depths of the cloud and began their inevitable journey to the Earth below. All except one.

The gang leader continued fast towards Maliit. He hadn’t seen what had happened behind him, but Maliit had witnessed everything. It was one on one, now. The gap between them was closing, and in the background Maliit saw more and more drops falling. “Come on wind”, Maliit urged. And the wind was there, surging him forward.

They were closing in, momentum growing in each of them, the inevitable collision, imminent. Then at the very last moment, a warm, dry breath of air hit Maliit on his right side. It wasn’t strong but just enough to shift his course and as they came to the crushing centre of their careering paths, Maliit swung by just to the left of the gang leader. As they passed, the distance between them became so small they were almost touching, just a fraction of air, compressed between the two shining spheres of water. It was a lens through which Maliit saw every detail of the gang leader, and as he looked deeper he saw something new, something that could only be seen this close, something that must have always been there. Maliit saw his reflection.

In the near perfect fisheye image created by the still sphere of water that was the gang leader, Maliit could see his own round, slowly shimmering shape. He could see himself surrounded by little distant images of his friends speeding determinedly towards the other gangs. He could see the grey and white billowing shape of the cloud behind and around them moving and spiraling. It was an incredible and beautiful scene. And as a growing sense of awe built inside him Maliit saw that this gang leader, this simple little drop before him, was just like himself. Maliit’s could sense the sublte insecurity of the gang leader caught off guard, and recognised himself in him. They were both, when it came down to it, the same. They’d all experienced the freedom of floating in the warm morning air, the change from particle to droplet of water. They’d experienced the same colours playing around and through them. They were raised from the same earth and held by the same sky. And in a deep way, a way that Maliit couldn’t really understand, he felt that they were both, together with the Earth, the Sky, the Wind, the Light, and all the other droplets in the cloud, part of one big thing.

As the two drops swung past each other, their gazes followed. The gang leader, now looking back into the rising centre suddenly noticed his other members were no longer there, no longer with him. Frantically he looked around for them then glanced down just in time to see the last of them, churning in an angry wobble and disappearing into the gloom below. He didn’t look up straight away but stared into the depths of the cloud which was by now filling with falling rain. Maliit watched him cautiously for a moment then felt empathy build inside him. The gang leader had become gangless; alone. Maliit had felt that. He knew what that was like.

Defeated and alone, the leader looked at Maliit and at his small group of friends that had started to gather around them. He saw the immense, grey cloud behind Maliit swirling about and watched as other gangs fought and shoved their way towards the top. He watched as more and more large drops fell around them, some of them quite close. And as he looked one last time at Maliit, he saw himself, reflected in Maliit’s own shining surface. He stayed that way for a moment seeing his own reality laid out before him. Then, making his decision, he gave Maliit an almost imperceptible nod, then he suddenly looked up and moved backwards into the way of a falling raindrop.

As the drop hit the leader, it’s downward trajectory suddenly interrupted, they both compressed almost flat with the force. Their wet circumferences broke then suddenly recombined into one, engulfing them both. The large raindrop hung there for a moment then, still wobbling with the force of the collision, began its long journey down to the Earth.


The next series of event happened relatively fast.
More and more drops were forming, causing a compounding runaway effect. The falling drops were hitting other rising drops making them morph and fall as new raindrops which would then hit other drops on their way down. It was getting very hard to avoid being hit and becoming a raindrop yourself. Soon the bottom of the cloud had opened into an enormous curtain of rain, slowly falling through the warm air and watering the dry, thirsty Earth below.

Dusty leaves of ancient gums and small, fragile shoots of new growth were gratefully drenched in the downpour. Low lying gullies and dry creek beds became moist, then muddy, then began moving the water along as gravity allowed. Puddles formed across the landscape allowing the light to flicker off the thousands of ripples left by the falling drops. And as the grateful Earth accepted the rain, life streamed into rich, green abundance.

The enormous storm cloud moved slowly over the landscape dropping more and more rain in its attempt to stem the chaotic greed of the power hungry gangs. More flashes took place as the light, excited by the intense action raced around the cloud from flash to flash, sometimes even shooting up into the cloud from the Earth below in webs of fiery streaks.

As time went on, Maliit and his crew grew in number and effectiveness. Soon the raging, rising pillar of droplets through the centre of the cloud became less of a maelstrom and more of a flurry. Gangs began to lose their motivation to rise to the top and chose instead to swirl about into the blue sky around the sides of the cloud. They’d begun a change from enormous, grey white explosions to beautiful strips of bright white curling into the deep blue sky.

Maliit, having slowed down now, looked out and caught a glimpse of these new shapes happening high above, and he stopped in his tracks, transfixed. ‘What is that?’ he thought. He moved out towards the side of the cloud and looked up. As he watched he saw the crisp edges of the high, morphing behemoth becoming softer and reaching out and join the thinning cloud top. It was beautiful. Maliit, in awe continued gazing upwards, sometimes seeing familiar shapes beginning to form. They were twisting, changing then morphing into something else. A tree, no, a mountain, and then, catching a deep part of his memory and stirring something within, he saw it form into his old home, his old river bank. The memory of the recent events suddenly flashed into his consciousness, waking him from his trance. He continued watching for a moment as the cloud stirred into the blue, the riverbank disappearing then it wisped out of sight altogether.

Maliit made his way to the top of the cloud, apprehensive of what he might see when he got there. As he rose, the light becoming brighter as he neared the top, he looked around. There were still a few gangs furiously swinging around and pummeling little droplets out of the way, but they were no longer as strong or effective as they were before. Maliit couldn’t see any more drops falling from up here. There didn’t seem the need anymore. Other little drops, lots of them, were heading out from the top of the cloud, not angry, not fighting, but joining together in what seemed like a new sense of purpose. Maliit rose higher and higher, watching more and more drops grouping together and heading out, making their own versions of cloud art in the sky.

Eventually Maliit broke through the top and into the bright, warmth of the Sun. Still rising he looked around and felt a surge of amazement at the massive transformation that the cloud had undergone, going from one moment as an enormous, angry storm cloud, filled with greed and power to the next, a spreading, wondrous beauty. He looked down and saw forming from the lower reaches of the cloud what looked like waves, or maybe almost a soft, hilly, white landscape. It was incredible. He’d never seen beauty like this before.

Maliit remembered back to the moment he felt the water on his sides and watched the other dust particles pass though his shadow turning into a growing swirl of drops. He had no idea back then what he’d inadvertently started. The Sun looked down on Maliit sending it’s light streaming through his cool, clear sides. As he kept rising, seeing more and more beauty in the cloud below, the light began its work on him.

If you happened to be up there watching and you happened to be looking closely, really closely, you would have been able to see Maliit, spinning slowly, gradually decreasing in size, smaller and smaller. And then, looking very close now, you would have seen Maliit, become so small, barely visible, feeling the wetness on his sides decreasing. And a moment later, you would have seen him transform from a small drop of water into a tiny crystal, a particle of dust, a small piece of Earth, shimmering in the sunlight as he turned slowly in the Sky. And if you were able to hear the voice of a particle of dust you would have heard Maliit give a very soft, satisfied sigh.


As the cloud slowly dissipated, its amorphous artworks stretching out to the horizon, the Sky looked down and watched Maliit drift on the cool air. He kept watching as Maliit gradually dropped back down to the warmth of the dusty red Earth, catch a gentle warm breeze and drift by the tops of the river red gums and across the land into the distance. He kept watching for a moment, smiled then he turned away, his gaze following along the horizon. As he looked deeply he found them. A small group of dust particles, rising slowly in the warm air, the colours playing off their polished sides. And he saw one, holding back as the others raced around, madly vying for the best light, the best colours.
He smiled, sat back and waited.