06 18 11 Lightning

06 16 11

With a loud bang, I woke up this morning very suddenly. The sound of the thunder rolled across Kennebec Valley in a never ending rumble. I could tell that our dog coco was a little surprised, but she soon let out a loud groan and laid her head back down on her blanket beside the bed.

I love thunder and lightning storms. Always have since I can remember. The true magnificence and power is something that I will forever be amazed with. This world of ours is truly amazing in all its grace and power.

I remember some years ago my wife, son and I were sitting on the picnic table out in the back yard. It was a warm summer day roughly 10 years ago. There were a few distant rolls of thunder that you could hear from the west. I knew a storm was heading towards us from the western mountains, as they usually do on those warm summer days.

We were just chatting away with our old dog Barkley sitting next to us on the ground. He was such a good boy. I don’t think I looked at him as a dog. He was one of us. My Barksey boy.

With a snap of a finger, all of a sudden there was a bright flash of light and a loud deafening popping sound at the same time. Instantly I felt a charge of energy rush up my back, down my forearms and down the front of my legs. I jumped up, hollered and screamed at the same time my wife and son also did. Barkley let out a couple of loud yips and started running around the picnic table uncontrollably. Matt jumped up, screamed, and ran into the garage as fast as I have ever seen him move. Lynne screamed and jumped up crying. We were all caught off guard, and were all in a state of shock. We were not sure what happened, but it happened none the less.

I do not know how close the lightning strike was, but it couldn’t have been very far from us. I have never had anything so wonderfully scary ever happen to me before or since.

It was apparent that each of us had an abundant amount of energy for the next few days. I know for certain that I did indeed. I just felt so different. I felt aware and alive and awake and alert. At the same time I felt like such a small intricate part of something so wonderfully enormous and powerful. I felt part of something that made sense and had bearing on the bigger picture.

We didn’t talk much about it. We knew what had happened to us. It seemed appropriate that something as significant as that happened to us as a family. It made us closer somehow.

There are a few things that have happened to us as a family that have engraved the feeling of family deeper.

The thunder on this morning has for the most part rolled on by and it feels like the sun is working it’s way through the morning commute of rush hour storm clouds. It really is a good warm feeling to have the sun poke it’s gentle hands out from behind darkened clouds. Magnificence unfolded.

I am not sure where the message of this all leads to. I am not sure what meaning I am trying to manufacture. I am not sure of a lot of things. One thing though I am fully aware of is the fact that I love chocolate. I love chocolate and I love thunder and lightning storms. I get goose bumps when I hear them coming at us from the west. I get excited and my pulse races and my hands get sweaty and I can’t sit still.

As quick as they come, as fast as they go, as awesome as they are, I will forever be amazed at their pure power. I wish there was some way to harness that power and put it in a pill that you could take once a day. I have never felt so alive before. Well maybe a couple times. The birth of my son. The birth of my grandson. The first time my wife looked at me. The first time she smiled at me. The first time she touched me.

Maybe this feeling is out there in many forms. Maybe this electric feeling is always within us, and certain things have a way of pulling it out of you.

Maybe that’s why I feel like this when I hear my grandson’s voice calling my name, or when I hug my mom, or the way  my dad winked at me in my youth.

Maybe this flow of life within us is our source of being. Maybe there is some way that we are all tied in with the powers of this magnificent wondrous place we call home. Maybe it is just god’s way of saying, “Hey down there, remember me?”. Maybe I could use a whoopee pie.

Maybe..