2001-09-25 - 9:14 a.m.

First Rain

It is hard to describe something to people who may or may not understand the climate of someplace so far away ...

Central California's rainfall is pretty sparse. In fact, by most standards much of California is easily described as having an arid climate (like a desert). The local rainy season typically runs from November to March, but even these storms are infrequenty or at the very best non-fantastic.

Heat Lightening

But yesterday's storms were different. While riding the bus home around 6 PM, instead of reading Invisible Man (my current book), I took the time to just look at the clouds. It is funny to think that just a little bit of atmosphere is all that permits us all to live. Without little things like clouds would there be life?

I've always felt that lightening was one of nature's ways of reminding people that there are some things that dwarf human technology and politics. Heat lightening is truely fantastic ... to watch the entire sky glow and then return to a dull grey can be a religious experience.

In fact, for years I've argued that I'm at my best during storms. Last Halloween the "first rain" occured while I was taking the Professional Engineers exam, an exam that I passed two of the three parts on the first try (and with very little studying). The more I think about my friends and how things like rose pedals or even blood can become religious symbols to them, water vapour and rain seem to hold a significance to me. The irony is that I am (by experience) hydrophobic -- I nearly drowned twice as a child.

When the storm climaxed, I lit half a dozen candles (another religious like symbol for me) and simply folded laundry in silence, guided only by occasional flashes of light mixed with the dancing wisps of light from my collection of candles. For the first time in months I felt safe enough to sleep with my windows opened all night.

LISTENING TO: L'ame Immortelle's Judgement

-=-

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