Sun rays through clouds
Sun rays through clouds, called crepuscular rays, look as if they fan out from a point behind the cloud. In fact the beams run parallel, and perspective spreads them, the same way railroad tracks seem to meet in the distance.
What it may mean
Shafts of light pouring through a gap in the clouds look like the ribs of a fan, all spreading from one bright hub. Yet the sun is so far away that its rays arrive almost perfectly parallel. The fanning out is perspective, the same effect that makes a long straight road narrow to a point at the horizon. The beams nearest you look widest apart, the far ones seem to meet, and the whole pattern appears to come from a single source. Life plays the same trick on the mind. A bad month can seem to radiate from one cause (one person, one mistake) when it is really several separate threads that only look joined from where you stand. A sky full of these rays is beautiful; it also invites a second look at whether your own troubles really share a center.
Depending on how you saw it
Beams through a dusty room
The same shafts appear indoors when sunlight slants through a window into dust or steam, and they vanish when the air holds no dust at all. What do you only notice when the light comes in at an angle?
The sun drawing water
An old name for these rays was "the sun drawing water," as if the beams were sucking moisture up. A weather rule recorded in 1903 held rain to be near whenever the sun drew water. Which weather saying do you still repeat without thinking about it?
Rays that meet on the opposite side
On some evenings the beams cross the whole sky and seem to come together again over the horizon opposite the sun, where they are called anticrepuscular rays. Have you ever turned around and found the same story continuing behind you?
Why it happens in nature
Crepuscular rays are columns of sunlit air between the shadows of clouds, made visible by haze, dust or water droplets. The rays are nearly parallel, but perspective makes them appear to spread from the sun's position, and sometimes to converge again at the spot directly opposite.
To reflect on
Which of your troubles seems to come from one cause but might be several separate threads?