Storms

I love a storm, be it a winter storm or a summer storm, there is something about them that just calls to me. I think I take after my Barbara ankela, nothing she loved more than a thunderstorm, either outside watching it or standing at the window, watching it rain.

When there is a lightning storm you can be sure I am watching from the best view point, (if it's not raining) sitting and watching the lightning and listening to the thunder. Somewhere's I read if you count the seconds between the lightning and the thunder, that's how many miles the lightning is from you, not sure how accurate that is, but I go by it. The clouds that roll in dark and ugly, the wind, the smell of rain just before it does, all part of what I love. I am usually joined by almost half of my colony, after all I think not just me inherit this love of storms from my grandma and her sister, almost all their children and grandchildren did too. 

Last year we watched a tornado cell form just north of our colony, the clouds rolling and roiling, spinning, my disappointment was (shame on me!) that no tornado actually formed from that cloud, at least not in our area. It's not that I really wish for one, but I really think I would love to be a tornado hunter! Fascinating! Of course the last storm we had I was in the basement, surrounded but 3 screaming children. If it weren't for them I would have been out there watching it, and although we didn't have a tornado we had the winds of one that was 20 minutes south of us, actually uprooted a tree right next to the house where I was cowering with the children. I wanted to go out and take pictures just when the storm hit, and if you have ever seen a hurricane on TV, that's what the trees and wind and rain looked like, it was only when my little niece started screaming at me that she was scared that I came to my senses, that I was responsible for these children and to get to that basement now!

When a storm hits late at night when I'm in bed, I pull up my shade, turn my pillow to the foot of the bed and watch from the comfort of my bed, the only thing is I have a small window so my view is limited. and that is how I fall asleep, to the rumbling of the thunder.

In winter time there is nothing better than having a blizzard when I'm safe and warm in my house. The winds howling around the corner of the house is a comforting sound. This past winter didn't leave us with a lot of snow, we only had one storm, and I was on my way to the city when it hit, wasn't all that bad, although the other people along were quite scared, for myself, if it's not a Laura Ingalls Wilder blizzard it's not a blizzard. Of course a lot of people think I'm a bit strange for saying so. But seriously, my idea of winter is cold, with lots of snow and an occasional blizzard thrown in. But I wish everybody safe and warm in their houses when it hits. A number of years ago a guy we knew from another colony was in a truck when a blizzard hit, and he decided to cut across the field to go home, he got lost and confused, they found him the next morning sitting beside a tree. It was a sad funeral, he was so close to home, and even if he would have stayed in the truck as the other guy did, he would have made it.

I feel God's presence and almighty power in a storm. Makes me feel as small and insignificant as I am. Standing on a hill watching the uncoming storms, nothing compares. And truly I can sing then,"how great Thou art!" 

My God is an awesome God!