Storm Watch

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Growing up I loved a good storm. When the thunder and lightning would crackle and boom. I'd sit and watch for the lightning and then count, waiting for the thunder. One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand.....

It always seemed like it would take forever for the sound of the thunder after the lightning would split across the sky. We were taught to watch the sky and to count. Lightning far away is beautiful.

I loved running and dancing in the yard in the rain. My hair plastered to my back in dripping wet ringlets. I would scream and laugh as the thunder would roll across the skies.

One day, I was taking a nap and a summer storm passed through. I was awakened with a jolt as a huge boom of thunder shook the house. The house was dark, I was disoriented, and I couldn't hear any of my siblings or mother. I ran through the house in hysterics crying and looking for my mom. I was scared because the last memory I had had was of her outside putting the laundry on the clothes line. When I woke up, I'd not realized that time had lapsed and I thought my mom was still outside doing laundry in that storm.

Moments later I was consoled in my mother's lap. She was fine. It was just a really big boom! Nothing to be afraid of.

This past week and today we've had some fantastic thunder storms. Some have awakened us in the night with big crashes of thunder. This morning as I sit blogging, a flash of light and then with no time lapse, an ear splitting crash of thunder and then screaming and crying.



I race upstairs to console my baby girl. She has been awakened by the thunder. She is terrified. The house is dark. She is disoriented. She is shaking. I pull her into my lap and pull up the blinds so that she can see it is a new day. Everything is okay, and then we see the smoke start to rise above the trees. Everything is not okay. The smoke is too close. It is by neighbors. Loved ones.



I do what any idiotic person would do. I jump in my car with my camera and go and check. The emergency people hate people like me. We just get in the way. As I walk out the door, my baby girl says, "Let's hope no one is hurt".



With a sigh of relief after seeing that our neighbors are okay and that the lightning struck some trees in the yard, no one's home is burning to the ground... Another bullet is dodged.

Nature. It's beautiful. It's powerful. I'm grateful I was taught to love nature. To love a good storm. I don't run and play in a storm with the abandonment like I used to. I have to be the mom. I realize now that mother was never far away when we were frolicking in the storms. She was always on the porch watching the skies as I do now. So that my little ones can dance in the rain with abandonment not worrying and fearing and as the electrical storm gets closer, I bring the children inside to continue to watch the storm from the safety of our home. Like my mother did.