The day began warm and beautiful; stunning deep blue sky and slight billowing clouds…
There was a feeling of electricity in the air, literally. As the day wore on the clouds began to gather in earnest and the sky became a milky white, gray. Lightening began to strike in front of the house, thick as a tree trunk with
crackling branches. It struck over and over in the same place with sparkling lights dancing inside the clouds and tremendous thunder. It felt a bit like the war of the worlds when the lightening began to move over the house. Then the house was sitting inside the dark cloud with torrents of rain splashing like ocean waves and wind like a hurricane. Lightening continuing to strike like giant lungs breathing fire…in…and out…
Then the cloud was in back of the house and the rain became a light patter, the lightening drew back up into the sky and a shaft of bright light wedged its way through the black clouds. That is when we walked outside, a bit excited with the electricity. As we stood breathing in the perfume of the wet desert, a rainbow began to form. Luminous at first but then it began to solidify; solid shafts of vibrant, electric color, as thick as a 300 hundred year old redwood tree. And as we stood inside the rainbow, right in the center, another formed above it, complete from beginning to end. A double blessing, another promise…We inhaled the vibration of the color with each breath, in…and out…
And then we noticed a sound that had not been there before. We walked to the precipice and looked down into the canyon at the dried up arroyo…and there, wonders of wonders, was an impromptu river, 10 feet wide and 2 feet deep., rushing through the arroyo to the Rio Puerco. We darted down into the canyon to feel the grace of the moment. The power of it was breathtaking…and we breathed in that power…in…and out…
As we turned to go back up to the house, there between the rock faces was the sliver of the brand new moon. Another promise…
Later, lying in the utter black of night, I woke and looked into the sky…One meteor streamed past as big as the sun, leaving a long lazy tail before it blinked away…
Sometimes the storm builds…Sometimes it crashes black around you and there is fear and confusion…sometimes a light shines through the darkness and the colors begin to surround you…sometimes inside that light, peace begins to descend…sometimes the power of that peace allows you to see a new beginning…sometimes there is a promise of light after the darkness, color after the void, living water after a dry spell, a miracle inside the storm…
Sometimes, when you doubt who you are, what your part is in the grand play of life, how you fit into the puzzle, why it is you are here…sometimes when you are despondent, confused, unsure, even fearful; God speaks…God speaks…Sometimes very loudly…We just need to remember how to recognize the language.