Quick! Before you start if you'd like to LISTEN to this post instead of reading it, scroll to the bottom of this post! I really hope you do, because if you listen closely you can hear the thunder from the very storm this story is about... kinda cool, made me cry a little...AHEM! ANYWAY!
There's nothing like a few angry billowy clouds, booming thunder, and flashes of lightning to remind you that you're small AF and if Ma Nature wants you, she's having you.
Let me rewind. About 15 minutes ago I was sitting at my desk, finishing up client work and ready for a lunch break. Noticing it was stunning out I thought it a good opportunity to bring the yoga mat outside for a good scrub. It would give me a chance some much-needed rays and get some fresh air after I ate.
So, mat laid outside, cleaner applied, pierogies for lunch popped in the pan at a low sizzle when I heard a CRACK tear through the sky. It startled me I'm not going to lie- a huge BELLOWING BOOOOOOOOM followed not long after, and a moment later, the heavens ripped open and it began to pour.
We mock ancient civilizations for their folly, writing texts and depicting angry and all powerful gods on walls and in their works of art. But can you blame them? In that moment I felt small.
Like, tiny rodent with heart beating zillion miles an hour on the run from a Falcon with 6-inch talons small.
I would have made a pretty dumb mouse because although I did notice that things were eerily quiet moments before the storm started I didn't really bother to let it effect me. None of the normal squirrels and chipmunks scurrying about, not a single bird chirp. Nothing. Stillness.
And so in my human arrogance, set out to do what I was interested in accomplishing and completely unaware of my surroundings, I got caught in the rain.
Ah but this was no normal rain, this is the type of rain that beats down on your skin so hard it almost hurts. Huge droplets slamming down, disturbing dirt and gravel, pooling near drains at street corners. This rain was NOT messing around.
I hopped inside with no harm done because my human-ness means I also have access to the perks of engineering advancements of men and women who came before me, so the elements affect me less than my rodent friends.
It wasn't long until I heard a sharp crack, like someone had snapped a twig, then another, and another. I popped my little head out of my man-made den, and believe it or not, it was HAILING.
Just for a little context, today is August 2nd 2017. I'm currently staying in Northern New Jersey. And it's 82 degrees Fahrenheit outside.
AUGUST. NEW JERSEY. 82 Degrees.
It's hard not to feel ridiculously small when the elements just kind of show up like that, but that being said, I don't necessarily feel it's a bad thing. Here I was, going about my day, working in "the cloud" when the REAL clouds decided to remind me of their power and presence.
I love working creatively, but it makes me a little sad to think about how disconnected digital creative working can make a person. The access point for taking part in the upside down, means the loss of our connection with mother earth. For me it's no longer a choice to avoid nature, I have to make an active choice to engage it and experience it.
And what about those who don't realize they even have a choice to unplug? I fear the tides of culture and digital fomo are gliding them right along a path which ends in total disconnection.
Disconnection leading to indifference, indifference feeding arrogance and arrogance sparking war. War with the planet, which it seems we're already waging (don't worry, if we continue She'll win) but ultimately war with ourselves because we're part of the planet!
I won't ramble on about my hippie philosophies about sun gazing releasing endorphins in your brain, or how standing barefoot on the earth charges electromagnetic fields, those things only have power if you believe in them, and not everyone is as mystical cat as I am.
But maybe the next time it rains, allow yourself to appreciate the cosmic event happening just above your head little mouse. Air currents are crashing into each other, dips and peaks of temperature fluctuating, atmospheric molecules surging expanding and contracting while negatively charged lightning speaars strike the ground delivering negative ions to the positively charged earth.
Let it make you feel small, and your troubles unimportant. Because ultimately you are, and so are they.
Forces beyond our control, more massive than the sum of our species, raging and unpredictable are at work, wether or not we choose to acknowledge them.
So maybe it's not too strange to honor the "gods" once and awhile.
<3
A Rain Goddess In Training
Interested in learning more about @texttosteem? Want your own posts read by a Jersey Gal or British Guy for your posts? Check out this post: humble.link/texttosteem
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