Dear Reader:

I think summer thunderstorms are my one of favorite things. I have been thinking about the lyrics to Julie Andrews “Favorite Things” from the Sound of Music… she would be hard-pressed to rhyme a thunder storm with anything else but still…they are amazing!

What got me thinking about them was the stormy, windy, rainy weather we had earlier in the week…I remember being surprised one afternoon hearing thunder booming… off in the distance. Really? Thunder in the winter? Pretty rare.

What is it about a storm that brings deafening booms of thunder accompanied by sharp zig-zags of light… that both attract and repel us at the same time? Thunderstorms can be terrifying but also alluring in the sense that we are inside…safe and comfortable…while nature, itself, plays the game “war” with the threatening skies….

What I most love about a summer daytime thunderstorm is its aftermath…when it winks, bids us adieu, and disappears as quickly as it came. Suddenly the sun reappears and even on earlier hot, dusty summer mornings..the air temperature magically drops and dust is replaced with sparking droplets of water catching prisms of sunlight producing the ‘beauty of the earth.’

Think about it…rainbows have never been attracted to cloudless days…they only follow storms.

Children, whose sense of fun, mocks us ‘fuddy-duddy’ adults,   happily run to the mud puddles left over from a thunderstorm or rainstorm and jump and splash to their hearts’ content…or until discovered by another horrified ‘fuddy-duddy’ adult! 🙂

Just like the beauty of a metaphorical clean slate following a thunderstorm…we humans can also see farther and clearer down our own paths in life…when cleaned out by Mother Nature’s thunderstorms in all her wisdom…pointing us along our new path…our new way.

So until tomorrow…

If you are one of those people who are terrified of thunderstorms, who hide under the covers or in the closet…next time there is a thunderstorm… try pushing back the blankets, cracking open the door and look instead at the beauty that will follow a thunderstorm…

*I have discovered more ideas for where I want to start a new bed of flowers or plant a bush… from picking up debris following a storm…than at any other time. The empty spaces from the debris removal open my eyes to new possibilities.

Remember that rainbow…you can’t see it if you are hiding from life.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Did you know little children would rather draw a rainbow than any other image? Think about how many we see on the televised weatherman’s children’s art pictures…no matter the weather or season. And remember how all the children around the world, (starting with the Italian children)began drawing rainbows for hope soon after the Covid19 pandemic began last March?

Children understand that no matter how many storms we face…there will always be a rainbow…and a mud puddle to splash in…Let’s take time to join them in these memory lane splash-backs! They grow up too soon!!!

Jake…my wish for you is that you will always be the “I” in KIND!