magical night. michelle slosser

Yet another example of the deep joy and peace that the natural world brings. Friday night I was supposed to be writing journals, but the huge thunderhead coming down warwick drew my outside with an irresistible force. The whole cloud was visible, and was traveling southeast down warwick, lightning flashing across the whole cloud, in little bursts throughout it. My friend and I went to watch it on the sidewalk, but as it came closer and the streetlight got brighter, we decided to go up to the roof and watch. Fireworks also started going off from the football field, what an amazing night! It was warm enough to be in just a t-shirt, but I brought a sweatshirt in preparation for the rain that surely coming. As we sat on the roof, alone from the traffic below, and the people on the sidewalks hootin and hollerin at the fireworks, I felt very close to the weather, and felt its power. My friend commented on our ability to control just about everything in this world, except the weather. We watched the cloud come over us, high above, moving across the moon, with little holes every now and then for the moon to peak through. Lower, lighter clouds blew along faster underneath the huge rain cloud, and we watched the smaller clouds swirl about in the changing air, making all kinds of different shapes. Darkness blew over from the west, and the rain came quickly, but gently. The streetlights now showed a beautiful performance of raindrops in the light they gave off, and we got soaked. The rain tasted so good, and I liked to lick it off my top lip. I cant deny that is wasn’t a fabulous idea to sit on the highest spot available in the middle of a thunderstorm, but I like to keep the mindset that instantaneously dying from a lightning bolt is far less likely but less painful than dying in a car crash or from heart disease, so I didn’t let myself get too scared. Immersing myself in the weather was very fulfilling, I felt much more alive that night than I had for most of the semester.