Out of the blue - well, actually, grey, and about to rain any minute -
Out of the grey, with no forewarning,
ZZZZZZAP! A lightning strike, right in the village downtown,
just as my car turns the corner by the BP station.
A young man out for a walk is nearly lightning-struck - right in the very moment that I happen to see him leap in shock and prance away loaded with energy -
Later I hear that all the pumps at the BP have been taken out by the lightning.
I am, by this time, sitting inside the credit union watching the pouring rain washing in floods down the street,
and the transformation of raindrops to hailstones,
and then noticing the open windows - electronic - of the parked car just in front of my view.
Oh, lightning - O, Death almost - Oh, the Great Awakening in the Moment
and the young man prancing still - eternally - in my memory.
How very cool living in the moment is, and must it always take a near-death lightning strike to bring that home?
Back home, I watch the next wave of storms shake the trees and fill my deck flowerpots with even bigger hailstones.
Trees tossing in all the windy cloudy thundery poury-downy-rainy excitements, for sure:
and also, for certain sure - the tiny flowers, standing the storm and blooming their hearts out no matter what.
In the moment.


Comments: 31
I have always been fascinated by lightening. When I was a little darling in Kansas, we would watch the lightening from the sleeping porch. When we lived in VA we unplugged all our valuable utilities and lay on the second story deck as we watched the storm roll over the hills and head toward our huge tree in the backyard. It was struck at least once a year. Most powerful and compelling stuff.
I loved watching tornados form too.
You're a "little darling" after my own heart. Where I grew up we did a lot of thunderstorm watching, too - not tornadoes, though - but now there are tornadoes in that region (E. Tennessee).
You watched them on the prairies - we watched them roll in over the mountains. Magnificent, either way.
When the lightening comes very close ( like a strike in the back yard) the hair on your arms will stand up a bit. The sound of the clap would be deafening and then we would all begin to yell....yea!
little know facts about the very quiet Karen.
Love that kinda quiet.
I once saw ball lightning! A blue ball - rolled up and down the window.
You will never forget that, you should never forget that.
Cool....and me, too. As a pre-teen, while living in Missouri, I watched a tornado form, watched (from a cellar door) it head our direction and split a tree in half on the neighboring farm. The next day we looked at that neighbor's barn where there were sticks of straw stuck in the barn wood, like a nail. Amazing.
Tanya, it is truly fascinating. Such incredible power, just mesmerizing.
I love thunderstorms and the smell of ozone in the air.
The energy in the air when the thunder booms and lightening glows in the sky. It's one of the best thing about living almost next to Lake Erie.
That is a great smell! And it also has something to do with hydrogen peroxide, if what I've been reading is correct - that hydrogen peroxide is formed, and the rain containing it is extra nourishing for the plants.
It was a moody brooding electric day....how nicely you captured it in your space!
Ooh, I like that phrase.
It's got a stickiness somehow, that release with a snap!
I like that phrase, too!
ooh ooh, once I was walking into the upstairs office for our home business, just ready to pass between the two windows on opposite sides of the room, and a streak of lightning dashed in front of me. If I'd been a second later it would have intersected my path. I stepped back a bit to catch my breath, in awe and wonder, but I often ponder how it went through the glass without shattering the windows - that much energy which burns tree people to a crisp. Awful, awesome, awestruck!
I've been pondering energy a lot lately, so this was a timely post for me.
Yes - to me, lightning and the planet Uranos go together.....Lightning revelation, I guess....revelation revolution.....
We've had wild storms here in NB Canada recently as well. Since I live near the woods, I keep hoping lightning will strike a tall tree before it hits our bungalow.
I remember as a child watching a steel hay-rake get hit by lightning. We knew the storm was coming, but we wanted to get the last load of hay in before the rain started. Dad and my brother drove the horses and the last load of hay into the main part of the barn and climbed down off the load. I unhooked the horses' traces and my team headed into the barn as well. No sooner were they in their stalls than the old steel hay-rake began dancing in the air. We watched this phenomenon from the door of the horse stable. A bit too close for comfort.
Wow. Thank heavens it played with the rake but didn't bother to start a barn fire, eh? Whew!
Wow. That would have been scarey-awesome!
In the moment...zen-like and holistic.
The older I get the more sense it makes to set the garbles aside and go for the moment! (c:*
Your story pulses with the energy of the world around us and the energy within.
Ann - that's it - thank you - the inner lightning.
Some go for enlightenment -
Looks as if I might be headed for in-lightning-ment. (c:*
:-)
Ahhh, Jerry. (c;*
Quite 'shocking' weather you're having!
Beautiful writing, Carolion. Your descriptions of the inner and outer worlds come together as an organic whole.
(I happen to love storms too.)
Aniko, thank you. It's good to hear from you.