of Mother Nature’s pranks … her dark clouds, whipping wind and errant bands of rain should not be allowed to play with my emotions.
It is, on many levels, unfair, to anticipate the power, brilliance and soothing qualities of a wild summer thunderstorm only to find the clouds whisked away; the sunlight filtering through, laughing and dancing as though it were there all along.
Dark clouds, upturned leaves in the wind, the enticing smell of rain in the air … these things tell me a storm is imminent.
I quiver in anticipation as I prepare to absorb the extravagant power of it.
The mood of it.
The overwhelming presence of it.
And then …
As though it never was, it is gone.
I hear many folks complaining about the rain. I don’t complain about it, even when it threatens to wash me out of my valley.
I love the sound of it, the feel of it, the thought of it.
Add some thunder, lightning and wind and I am in my own personal Heaven.
Nothing, at least to my way of thinking, is quite so soothing as the sky split open by slashes of lightning while the rain falls; big, fat drops that soak the earth and water the trees all the way to their roots. The sound of thunder, bellowing, rolling, rumbling is a beautiful thing.
It reminds me that I am alive.
That I am a part of, however insignificant, the whole of the world.
The sky, the grass, the mountains, the trees, the wind, the rain, the clouds … I am part of each of them and they of me.
For a space of time, we are one with one another and I am as free as the birds that inhabit the space between earth and sky.
It is hard to feel insignificant when surrounded by such incredulous power and energy that beats within my heart and soul and takes me into itself.
I am the storm.
I am the lightning.
I am the thunder.
For those moments when I am standing in the midst of the chaos, I am one with nature.
If there is a greater feeling than embracing the full fury and magnificence of an awesome storm, I fear it; I’m not certain that I could bare the emotional and physical magnitude of it.
I’m content with the storm. Nothing else is required.
A Photographer's Heart 