Dancing in the Rain...

I love storms. I always have. The wind, thunder and lightning; the beat of rain against anything in its path; the smell of wet pavement or dirt. For me, stormy weather brings a feeling of being safe and of course; being cozy at home. I love seeing nature's fury and being reminded that I am only a small and temporary piece of this life.

I think this started with my early years in Ohio. One of my earliest memories is of my mother tucking my younger brother and I under Dad's workbench in the basement during a series of tornadoes. My older brothers were at school that day. The tornadoes passed; cutting a path between our neighborhood and the boys' school. I remember uprooted trees, branches everywhere and Mom's anxiety until they got home safely.

I went to college at one of the rainiest places in the Continental U.S. and never owned a raincoat or umbrella. This was a source of pride for my group of friends as we all took the same stance on the weather. Of course I didn't wear much makeup then or spend much time on my hair either. Then in my corporate life I used to travel to the Midwest frequently for work and had many turbulent flights back to Los Angeles. One was more memorable than others. It was a nighttime flight where the pilot took us up to 46,000 feet, just above the storms. You could watch the lightning glow, then flash and flatten as it reached the top of the clouds. When I shared this with one of my brothers who used to be a pilot he said those scenes were one of the benefits of the job no one told you about.

Now we live in a mountain community and we have experienced snow storms that include thunder and lightning. We get summer storms with amazing lightning and thunder that rattles our neighborhood. And we get the occasional lightning strike on the ridge above our house. The Significant Other tends to sleep or hunker down; our dogs get a little crazed and destroy books. (Note - we have a Katrina rescue dog...) I usually sit in our living room, turn off the lights unless Mother Nature already has and just take it all in.

You see, lately I haven't been appreciating the storms as much. I realized this the other day when I had to go through a gentle rain to get to my car in a far corner of a parking lot from the door I was in. I started out in a rush and then slowed down. I remembered a physics professor saying it didn't matter if you ran or walked, you would still get just as wet. Yes, I actually paid attention in college physics... Then I got home and looked out to our backyard and saw plants blooming and things growing that I never seen before; courtesy of our storms. These storms bring out the strangest and most wonderful things and moments. Last night we went to an outdoor concert and dinner. At the end of the concert it started to rain and the SO surprised me. People were running to their cars, but not us. As I started to pack up he decided that was the time for us to dance. Of course, being a former Deadhead he was used to dancing in the rain and being a former Lumberjack I was happy to do so... I love storms.