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Hi all,

As some of you know, we've been labouring under an intense heat wave here for the past week or so (to the extent that I seriously considered cancelling all my appointments on Monday for fear that some of my clients would lose consciousness in the heat and humidity; the low- to mid-100's weather doesn't mix very well with a whole bunch of different medications). It's been insufferably hot all week. It's been unbelievably sticky all week. Just standing there, you could feel all your pores close right up and your body temperature rise--I actually got a few dizzy spells myself, this week.

An hour an a half ago, the wave broke. I was downstairs, in the basement (where it's relatively cool), watching a movie when I suddenly heard a clap of thunder. I put my nose against the tiny ground-level window and saw fat raindrops falling on the street. I stopped the film and went upstairs to the backyard patio doors in the kitchen. I slid the screen door open and walked out onto the back porch; lightning was flashing all around--one bolt after another after another after another. Ceaseless rumbling and crashing in the sky. It lasted for close to an hour. I'd never seen anything like it in my life. I saw the most amazingly intricate bolts of lightning arcing through the clouds or crashing so close by that there was literally no time lag between strike and thunder.

The rain hissed as though every drop were being fired straight down from a billion naildrivers in the sky. I took off my shirt and walked out, barefoot, wearing only my jeans, into the middle of the yard and let myself be soaked (within a mere second or two, I might add). Oh, blessed, blessed relief! The only thing that drove me back to the relative shelter of the porch was the fact that I could no longer keep my eyes open against the rain, which prevented me from enjoying the show. Dripping wet, I leaned against the corner post and watched. I saw bolts of lightning the likes of which I'm sure it'll never again be given to me to see. And, then, it happened. A moment of grace. I realized--deep, deep down in my soul (for what is only the second time in my life)--that everything was relative. Compared to this, gender identity foibles were trifling issues. Men. Women. It didn't matter. Not even the human species in its entirety could hold a candle against the fire I was seeing in the sky and the waters that came flooding with it, at this moment in time, this moment in my life.

A moment of grace.

I feel fortunate right now to be the kind of person who actually pays attention to this kind of thing. It sort of sets things right in my head when I become too much involved with myself or with the mundane world of human preoccupations. This, to me, is where I feel the innate power of our magical mystery tour.

When I come down from moments like these (because, really, to live only in those kinds of moments is to go stark, raving mad, I'm sure), I see the world with a fresh pair of eyes. The beauty and power I just now witnessed gets transferred to the rest of the world around me. And I notice how grateful I am to have you all in my life. You matter. All of you. Thunderstorm or no.

Love,
CJ

what a nice post CJ. I really like the idea of deep personal realiations from the weather also.

Absaroka

CJ, I think if more people had an epiphany every now and then and actually realized what they were experiencing this whole world would be a much better place! Thanks for sharing yours. I, personally, would not want to have too many strung together as I would become spoiled and this way, when they do come, it is such a wondrous experience.
One that I had over a year ago was following a thunder storm, the sun came out clear and as bright as you can imagine. This caused a beautiful rainbow, and the rainbow fell on me!!!! I was in my truck and the colors of the rainbow began to dance all around the truck, inside and out, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever witnessed, the colors were beyond description, glimmering and flashing and sparkling - absolutely awesome! And then it was gone and I know I had had an EVENT in my life that may well never be repeated, but it is burned into my mind forever!
Honey, may you and all my sisters continue to be blessed with these gifts once in a while and most importantly know them when they happen!!!
Virginia

Hi CJ,

I can certainly understand your being imprssed by a thunderstorm. I've been impressed by them daily here, especially since this region is well-known for its lightening displays. Only yesterday, a fisherman was killed by a bolt - he was standing in the water fishing under a thunderstorm! That almost deserves a Darwin Award.

I have always been moved by astronomical events such as eclipses. One is humbled by the display of power.

Hugs,
Lydia

Hi all,

Lydia,

You're right; nature can be humbling sometimes. Its power and its beauty can grab a hold of you and shake you loose from your little life. But, you know, for me, it doesn't even need to be a major event (like thunderstorms or stunning sunsets); even the magic of the garden being mirrored in a dewdrop will do the trick. Of course, this implies that we have to be watching and paying close attention to the world around us, something we often mistakenly believe we have no time for.

Next month, after Beauty's departure, I'll try to make it over to my dad's in order to catch the annual Perseid meteor shower. He lives in the country, roughly twenty or thirty miles north of the Vermont border, and his house is high up on a hill, giving us an unobstructed view of the pre-dawn sky (best time to catch sight of all those mid-August shooting stars). It's the only time of year I forego use of one the many pairs of binoculars he owns; this is a totally wide-field, naked-eye spectacle, one I try to catch every year.

So, you're a fan of the Darwin Awards, too, eh? Good, good! Evolution wouldn't be the same without them!

Love,
CJ

Very, very interesting. Could it be that we are coming into contack with our soul and life as we know it is a far greater thing then we can imagine?

Hi CJ! I'm glad you enjoyed the thunderstorm. Sounds like our clash of the airmasses we usually enjoy in Oklahoma. However, you are so far north, I can only attribute such a display to global warming---as well as the temperatures you have been having. We are the same in the Oklahoma/Texas area, and our most recent front, likely part of yours, passed through dry over most of the state.

If you found this storm stimulating, wait until you have the pleasure of watching a tornado--preferably from some distance. Hail the size of marbles up to softball size, spiked with the ice crystals garnered as the nuclei roll and tumble in the fierce winds churning the higher clouds tens of thousands of feet above, descend with great force, liberally sprinkling the ground, exploding on the concrete and asphalt (do you call it tarmac?) and bouncing up to 6 ft in height when the the big ones hit the ground covered by short grass; look up at the edges of the storm with mammiform clouds glowing with eerie greenish highlights that warn of the coming hail at one level, and see their steady movement, and then the lower cloud deck moving as a gray scudding mass the opposite direction sucked in by the forming circulation that spawns the tornados; then pitch black to blue-black cloud split and fried by a near constant flicker of lightning, occasionally with bolts of ground to cloud lightning arcing, lancing from the sky to spear trees or tease the earth itself, or blowing transformers with lound bangs and sparks and then fire; then the tornado or tornados if it is multiple vortex, first a thin ribbon of wavery white while above the ground then turning dark and ugly as it touches the earth, ripping and snatching at trees, houses, cars, with roars almost as something alive, much like a great ravening beast as it takes nearly all in its path, yet zigs and zags erratically across the landscape like a playful scourge over a bowed back!!!

Yeah, supercell severe storms are a LOT of fun!! By the way, it would be best if you do not walk out in a severe storm with ground to cloud lightning, as you can be the object that establishes a potential between the ground and the electrical friction in the clouds. Some people are even struck twice, often in the same second. You don't even have to be the tallest object around!!!

An electrifying experience!

Just shocking, really.

This stuff killed 30+ head of cattle a couple years ago near the town I grew up in. They had huddled beneath the shelter of a large and isolated tree.........

If you want to see something to really make the hair stand up on your head, be lucky enough to see ball lightning. Twice, once in Wyoming, once on the plains of southwestern Kansas not far from Dodge City, I got to see that. It is nearly indescribable, nothing like the ground to cloud lightning, ball lightning seems to be a blob of plasma, or maybe superheated moist air, that persists after the dissipation of the cloud to cloud charge that forms it, drifting for seconds in the air, glowing, poping and sizzling, then it kinda like implodes with a surprisingly soft pop, and if it is touching anything it leaves a scorch or burn. They have been known to start prairie fires, maybe forest fires too.

Love, Carolynn