Lightning Storms
What a sad state of affairs a thunderstorm is, it starts at a gentle breeze in the sky, the winds rustle, the clouds shift, the Earth itself seems to come alive and breath in the intoxicating fumes of nature itself. One can't help but notice the soft, subtle differences around us, as if Mother Nature is whispering a secret to the life of all the Earth, secrets foretelling of the coming storm. As the storm inches closer, the secret becomes louder, passing from tree to tree, and blade of grass to sign post, to people. We bundle up, we walk with our heads down, we stay in doors and close the windows. The Earth gossips with the beauty of what is blowing in all around us, and we can't help but steal a fleeting glance at the sun, wondering when we'll see it again. The clouds billow in, under the suspence of a day of building it up, finally it rears it's head, the rain comes down, sometimes in torrents, sometimes in sheets, sometimes as a soft mist which lay on our heads and massage our shoulders and make us feel alright. It comes in, and with it comes the lightning. Lightning, there's the rub. It comes in, loud as a lion, it shoots across the sky, and bellows it's challenge to everything that stands in its way, it lights up the heavens, and it threatens everyone into cowering in fear. Like a fire it blazes up the sky, and for a brief moment, the entire world is at awe of the terrorizing streaks of electricity falling all around us. Ironically, however, it bellows, it screams, it shows its muscle, and it makes it case, and just like a fire, it burns itself up, it uses everything that it has in being terrorfying and deafening, that it exhausts it's own life, and the sky once again finds itself returning to a calm, collected, expanse of nothing. but we wait, we watch, we listen, because we're all waiting for it again, we want to see it again. For a moment out lives were touched, we were in awe at the power of it all, and regardless what we say, we'll be there again, we'll stand in the face of hurt, and pain, and power, and we'll be happy, even if it burns itself up, even if we end up nothing more than what we always were.