"There comes that mysterious meeting in life when someone acknowledges who we are and what we can be, igniting the circuits of our highest potential."
-Rusty Berkus
...are you awake?
Its not often you remember seeing something spectacular for the first time. Most of the things that fill you with wide eyed wonder touch you as a child and the memories are soon swept away by sensory overload and time. But last night, on June 19th, 2005 just before 9pm, I was made as a child again before the unyielding power that lives all around us day to day. There is a way that nature speaks, that the land speaks. Most of the time we are simply not patient enough to listen, quiet enough to pay attention to the story...
It was a warm day, a nice departure from the cold, windy rainy days that usually encompass our city. Jason and I were laying on the couch about to embark on a long journey courtesy of my Playstation 2. It was then the light caught my eye. It was coming through the blinds in sheets of gold, brighter than it was at any other time during the day. I didn't react right away as I felt caught up, partially with curiosity, partially with awe. It took a minute to realize this isn't normal, it was almost 9pm and the sun should be setting, not shining brighter than at noon. Jason and I both moved at the same time towards the door. Jason mumbled under his breath, "is something on fire?"
While there was no smoke, it did appear that the sky was on fire. Its odd to call the color of the sky and the light around us 'unnatural', as how can anything nature creates be 'unnatural'. But I don't know of any other way to described it. The sky was bright gold the light around us seemed fired with orange. Everything was still. Have you ever had a moment, when the silence becomes deafening? Where silence actually almost becomes a tangible thing you can feel, or rather its touching you?
"What's going on?" was the question Jason asked. I told him I didn't know. It was odd to speak. Our words felt weighted and measured. Have you ever wondered what the first words ever spoken sounded like? How they felt, how they hung in the air? I never thought about it until now either.
I looked to my right and I saw two rainbows in the sky. Perfectly crisp and clear stacked right on top of each other. I grabbed my phone and sent a message to Cameron to look at the sky. I hate more than anything see or experiencing something alone. Not that alone isn't nice its more the fact I don't like to wake up the next day and wonder if what I saw was a dream, and I'm crazy because no one can corroborate what I saw. I didn't know then if what I was seeing was a far reaching as my friend was. If it would look the same. If in the end I would have to resign myself to a self-plea of insanity yet again.
Mid-way through the conversation, I was staring at the two rainbows when the wind picked up. It smelled sweet, like summer. And in the middle of those two rainbows a bolt of lightening flickered. I could feel the static in the air. The hair on my ams stood up, and my body prickled with warning of an impending storm. That warning was short lived, with another flash of thunder and rumbling of lightening anything electric lost all power. Lights, TV, clocks, computer, and even my cellular signal. In the seconds it took me to take inventory of this, the sky and rolled in to a deep purple and black. No more rainbows.
Jason and I stood on our front porch for what seemed like an eternity. I was trying to count the time between lightening and thunder, but there was almost no space inbetween. Then the rain came. Pouring down with vengeance and beating the earth in a primal rhythm. It was like the world was trying to wake itself up, from the thunder in the sky, to the rain beating on the earth below. My heart was racing. The lightening was flashing all around. Not just in one direction, or one at a time. But it would flash both to the left and the right of me. I wondered where everyone was. Why were Jason and I the only people watching. I felt as if everyone should be on their doorsteps with their heads arched to the sky. They should have been out of there homes ten minutes ago with the sky was on fire and you could actually see the light in its eerie orange coat. I wanted to scream, "THIS MEANS SOMETHING, WHY AREN'T YOU WATCHING, WHY AREN'T YOU AWAKE!"
I don't know why, but this was the first time I've ever feared getting struck by lightening. It was just so close, and going off everywhere. I could feel it humming and buzzing, like I could reach out and touch it. The air was hot. It was raining, thundering and lightening, yet the thermometer never reached below 75 degrees. My body felt so alive. It was then that I realized what that silence felt like, when the world was covered in gold. It felt like those moments, that are always so fleeting. When everything stops and seems to comes together. Thats what it was, only this time, it wasn't fleeting. It lasted, and hung in the air. The time is drawing near.
I sleeped soundly last night. I left the window and the blinds wide open and started to drift off listening to the thunder. Then as suddenly as it appeared the rain, wind, and thundered stopped. The last thing I remember hearing before I faded away were the sounds of night coming back. A cricket here, a drunken cat call from the bar across the street, a police siren in the distance.
On the drive to work this morning I heard on the radio the weather man exclaim how a freak storm came out of nowhere. He seemed indignant. How dare the weather prove his forecast wrong. I say how dare he presume to be a master of the all powerful mother. Apparently a unexpected cyclone visited my neighborhood last night and it appears I was in the eye of the storm. Thus explaining the lightening I was viewing on all sides of me. They said that its extremely rare for our region to have these types of storms and they couldn't remember when it had happened before.
When I got to work I tried to look up pictures or reports from last night, but I could find nothing other than that brief radio broadcast on my way to work. Something happened last night. Whether it was the beginning, apex, or end of something I don't know. But I do know things like this will be happening again, and with more frequency as the time is drawing near. We must start preparing. We must not rely on the idea that we will just be ready when it happens. Talent alone won't bring victory. Neither will being in the right place at the right time, unless you are ready. The most important question is: 'Are your ready?'
I have a feeling I'm the only person who felt this, who experienced this last night. If anyone reads this, this was real to me. I've tried to make it come alive as you read it so you perhaps to could see through my eyes. Was it just a storm or a cosmic, metaphysical call for awakening telling us 'now is the time'? Or perhaps it was just a storm. I'm sure time goes on I will begin to believe thats all it was. Even going so far as to convince myself. After all, I don't like thinking I'm crazy. But last night, when the cyclone hit, it sure didn't feel like I was in Kansas anymore...
EDIT:
PS. Tomorrow night is Summer Solstice, and not only is it a full moon, but the closest its ever been to the earth in ages. It should appear larger than life while in the sky. So keep looking up.
