Look up in the sky. See that French poodle? Before your eyes it morphs into an elephant. A few seconds later, it becomes the profile of Taylor Swift floating by. Cloud-watching has captured our imaginations since we were children. Many people even have found the International Cloud Appreciation Society.

In 2003 Gavin Pretor-Pinney was living in Rome while on holiday. After seven months glancing into the heavens at the mostly clear blue Roman skies, he discovered he missed the constantly changing cloud formations that were an everyday event in his native United Kingdom. He returned home and was engrossed in learning about clouds. The subject dominated his conversation for a year. Then a friend invited him to speak about clouds at a small literary festival. Pretor-Pinney titled his presentation "The Inaugural Lecture of the Cloud Appreciation Society." Afterward, he had to inform audience members who wanted to join the society that it did not exist. A few months later he launched a website, and the society was born. Five years ago it became his full-time occupation.       

Today, the Cloud Appreciation Society enjoys a membership of more than 50,000 people scattered in 120 countries, all united through their appreciation of celestial mist. It is divided into local groups that include a chapter in St. Louis, and another in central Missouri. Illinois cloud spotter groups are near Chicago.

Pretor-Pinney thinks of the society as reconnecting people with their early relationship to the sky as children finding images in the clouds. "Clouds are for dreams, and a deep thinking of them benefits the soul. If you consider the shapes you see in clouds, it will save you money on psychoanalysis bills," Pretor-Pinney jokes.

In a positive Ted Talk about the Cloud Appreciation Society accessible on the Internet, Pretor-Pinney points out that clouds are common to everyone no matter where they are in the world. They are the most egalitarian (平等主义者) of nature's displays, because people all have a fantastic view of the sky.

Charles Daniels didn’t grow up with a father in his house. As a child, he wasn’t given an explanation and that experience fueled his life’s mission (使命).” I was once that kid who blamed myself for my father’s absence. He wasn’t absent because he didn’t care about me.” Daniels tells Yahoo Life.

18.3 million children in the United States live without a father in the home. With his organization, Fathers’ Uplift, Daniels provides mental health coaching to assist fathers to overcome the barriers that prevent them from remaining engaged in their children’s lives.

“We have to be open to understanding why fathers are absent instead of judging them for being absent. The reason matters,” says Daniels. “Lots of them have issues with child welfare cases where they’ve not been able to see their kids.”

One way that Fathers’ Uplift provides support is by creating community. Many of the coaches are also fathers who have to overcome their own obstacles (障碍). The men call each other on their birthdays and they share their wins and losses.

At home, Daniels is a husband and father of two. When he thinks about his own children, his parenting philosophy is simple. He wants them to accept their imperfections. He also wants them to know they are loved by their family.

As Father’s Day approaches, Daniels realizes that the day can be tough for men who are separated from their children. He encourages them to hold on and to focus on what matters most.

Jose Adolfo is a banker from Peru. He encourages children to save money and offers his customers cash for recycling plastic wastes. But the remarkable thing is that he is still a child himself.

By the age of 7, he decided to create a bank for children. He was motivated by seeing his classmates skipping lunch because they had spent the little money they had on sweets or football cards. What drove him even more was the poverty he saw among children.

With the support of a local company, the 14-year-old founded the Bartselana student bank which now has more than 2,000 customers between the ages of 10 and 18. Children can withdraw (提取) money from several cashpoints of the bank. They can also monitor their balances online. What makes it different from traditional banks is that it sets savings goals for children. They have to reach those goals in order to withdraw their money.

The student bank really took off when he came up with the “Recycle Plan”, a new way for the children to earn money by collecting recyclable plastic or paper waste. Students can bring recyclable plastic bottles, used school books and old newspapers to the schools and put them into the collecting boxes. The recycling is weighed and the money goes to their bank accounts.

The bank recycles 4.4 tons of material a month and has collecting boxes in seven schools in Arequipa. More are on a waiting list. Increasingly the model is in demand in the rest of Peru and abroad.

His efforts have been noticed by Peru’s environment ministry. “He’s making an amazing change in financial (理财的) education that perhaps many adults could not come up with,” said the Peru’s environment minister, Lucia Ruiz. “He’s achieving a double goal because he’s not just designing a financial opportunity for children and teenagers but also helping to reduce waste in the country.”