Summer Thunderstorm
Interesting weather we’re having these few days, predawn storms announcing themselves with thunder. Hearing from the family room in the back of the house, I head out to get Linda’s PCNH before it’s soaked, greeted by broad, intimidating flashes of lightning out over the Gulf of Mexico and covering half of the southern horizon, and already raining lightly. We don’t get a choice, but I like these better than the summer afternoon thunderstorms, which generally pass to the north of us, blessing Lynn Haven, North Bay and Southport but not St. Andrews. Sometimes even Lowe’s or as slightly north as Sam’s but still doesn’t rain on Beach Drive.
This too pleasant to miss, I’m on the downstairs front screen porch. Light rain here and increasing as I enjoy, lightning and thunder beyond Shell Island south of me. From my chair, navigation lights: I can see one green flashing. For some reason, the green lights are easier to see than the red.
Suddenly it’s not all that far south. Incoming. And stirring from dead still to a cool breeze. This is good, really fine. And following the flashes that are closing in on me, are no longer rumbles, but sharp claps. A good morning, very good indeed; so good I’m switching from Helvetica to Wunderlich just for the excitement of it.
As well as current events and political slant, people like newspapers for intellectual enjoyment, sometimes to learn things. The New York Times is especially good for that, all week long but particularly Sunday. And Saturday, Saturday too, Linda handed me a couple of articles from the Saturday NYT, from the religion section I think, second below is a link to one of them, if it opens.
The first link below is to a short NYT piece that caught my eye on the cellphone yesterday while relaxing between services in Battin Hall at church. It’s about happiness and unhappiness, which has been bumping me lately, one stirred by activity in the right cerebral cortex, the other in the left, I didn’t know that. Left and right, the sheep and the goats again -- which for some of us will stir up Jesus and his parables; for others of us, Bill Weeks and the wonder of him as our teacher at Bay High eons ago. Further, for the longterm, according to the NYT piece, happiness responding more to intrinsic values in life, like relationships; unhappiness to extrinsic things, hopes, wants, disappointments of wealth, fame, position not satisfying. But it goes back and forth, doesn’t it: looking back and longing for a past relationship, or a deeper one, or one that has outgrown you and moved on with its own life, also can stir either happiness or deep melancholy, or back and forth: is that extrinsic or intrinsic, left or right? As in peering in the window of the garage out back, there’s a car there that I wish I hadn’t traded away, or the saying “a child is someone who moves through your life on the way to becoming an adult” -- you just have to agonize your way through it. Nobody belongs to you but yourself, and we can keep stirring the pot or turn off that light and move on.
Less than one second between that flash and its clap, close. But both sight and sound are more to the east than a few minutes ago, so easy to tell which way the storm is moving. And the rain, which had gone heavy, suddenly lightens, lessens. I’m glad I came out here to enjoy.
The second NYT link is to an article about SBNR, which is becoming a religious category of its own, its own church. Not to castigate, but my early experience of “spiritual but not religious” was folks who would rather be up the river fishing than in church on Sunday morning, telling me they find God better there. Or walking on the beach. Or on the golf course. God at the Bridge Table? I used to be skeptical, but I’m no longer so, although my spirituality is more likely to stir in a room full of people and where every now an then a child lets out a loud, happy shriek. Church is for crowded and noisy, but whoever or whatever God is also shows up here in the darkness of my porch, and moving in the fiery storm. It’s all good.
Rain has stopped. Tops of my pine and cedar trees are moving. Distant rumble to the east: wake up PSJ and Apalach.
TW+ in +Time
