• Have you ever sat on a hill during a thunderstorm? I have. Broken lines of white light shoot across the sky. . . 1. . .2 . . .3 . . .4 . . .5. . . crack! it is so close, only about seven miles away now, but I do not care. I crawled out of bed in the dead of night, dressed in jean shorts and a jacket and I climbed to the top of my hill where I can hear the thunder and see the lightning. They say that if there is lighting, go inside and stay away from the windows and doors. Anything less than fifteen seconds is dangerous, but I have been waiting for the storm for a while now. I want to feel alive again. A cold dose of reality runs up and down my spine and I realize that jean shorts and a jacket was not my brightest idea. Funny, I did not feel it when I walked up this hill only now when I am still and I can feel the wind blowing and twisting my hair into knots does the cold wind sting. . . 1 . . .2 . . .3 . . . crack! Hmm, it is even closer now and the rain begins to fall. I remove my brown glasses from my face for there is no need for them now, but this time when I take them off everything is not blurred. It is clear, crystal clear like the droplets of water have become my lens, my seeing eyes. For once in my life, I awaken with sight. Quietly, without sound nor breath, I move my hands through the knots in my hair. I am sure it would hurt if I could only feel my body now. Instead, I have a heightened sense of all things around me like I am connected to the surrounding everything. The air whispers in my ear, Ruuun! Run! Daaanger! Danger! but what does the wind know? The intoxicating scent of the rain slowly hypnotizes me, and paralyzes my body, but not my soul. It whispers low, on a different frequency then wind for it desires power and the ability to manipulate. Stay here! Stay here! Sit down! Sit down! Stay, stay! Unfortunately, the water has no power of me either. . . 1 . . .2 . . .crack! My body is shaking now and in danger of becoming cold and dead or infected with the parasite of illness that this earthly world has inflicted upon its inhabitants. With every strike of the white snakes in the sky, the ground moves back and forth with growls and moans as it tries to fight the snakes. Earth, sky, and water. All are different and in constant competition for territory with each other. Water erodes the cliffs of the earth licking its lips with every rock that falls into the sea. Earth pollutes the air in the sky with its toxins and fumes of rotting death. The air retaliates by letting the sun's rays pass through, boiling the ocean below it and soaking up its nutrients. It is a cycle that these great giants live in and without knowledge that it only takes one to break it. Crack! I did not count that one, but surely the lightning is upon me now. I can see where it angrily strikes the earth leaving empty holes in its wake. These formidable forces that surround me do not know that I exist, but only that I take up space and air. Precious air that could be used to fight the earth and water for territory. That is why it strikes me, I am only an obstacle in the wake of its path and objective to destroy. The wind is whipping violently now, back and forth, trying to push me to the safety of my house below, "RUUUN! RUN! DAAANGER! DANGER!" It screams at me now, but it is too late. My body collapses from the shock of the volts of lightning coursing through my veins. They say that lightning never strikes in the same place twice, but that night it did. My body lay lifeless upon the ground as my soul, myself, floated needlessly above it. In death, I have found life, the feeling of life, and being alive again for I know that it is missing. I realize, now, how small and insignificant I am in this world. I cannot move the earth or command the seas. Neither can I say to the lighting, "Do not strike me," or to the wind, "Quiet yourself," for I am not a formidable force and I have no power over things, only one being does and that is not me. To think, a human life is so fragile and breaks so easily under the quickest flash of a white snake. I am nothing, truly it is better this way. Truly, it is better this way. At that moment, the earth groans and the skies open to reveal a white light. A single pure, white dove gently floats down and comes to rest upon my shoulder. I feel warm arms of flesh and blood curl themselves around me. I can feel myself losing my new found senses as my soul is slowly sucked back into my body. The soundness of peace and tranquility calm the storm in my heart and neutralizes the lightning withing me. This strange man who carries me safely away has a power that I cannot even begin to imagine. Safety, I am safe now. Nothing can touch me in this cocoon he has created. No harm can befall me. These formidable forces may have taken my life to only give it back to me again, anew. Life, breath, warmth, love, and joy. My eyes flutter open and I know that I am finally alive.