I. Love. Thunderstorms.

My iPhone 4 camera doesn't cut it for photos of weather. Here's a stock photo to make things more visually interesting!

I was raised in Eastern Canada, where faint flashes on the horizon and distant rumbling counted as “thunder and lightning.”  The excited chatter that ensued in elementary school on those rare occasions is, in retrospect, cute.   I almost laugh at how excited I could become at the sight of a few silent streaks of lightning out at sea.

The earliest “real” thunderstorms I can recall were in Alabama on our regular summer vacations to visit family.  I remember standing barefoot on the concrete pad outside Grandma’s laundry room as a child, sheltered under the awning of the roof and peering at the yard obscured by a sheeting curtain of rain that poured from the gutters.  The rain was so thick you could barely see the other end of the yard.  You could feel the thunder reverberate in your stomach!  For a Canadian kid used to quiet snowfall and foggy rain, these deluges seemed Biblical in their intensity. They were invigorating and exciting like no snowstorm or rain-shower back home in Nova Scotia could ever compete with! 

I loved thunderstorms when I lived in Bangladesh for two years as well. I would regularly stand by our back window watching as lightning, appearing in faint colors of blue, yellow and green due to the heavy air-pollution, struck buildings and trees off in the distance. I’d often use the din of thunder and rain to cover up my amateur guitar playing and vocal accompaniment.   Once, a thunderstorm hit our neighborhood so hard that there was a literal waterfall running down the apartment building’s stairs from the roof.  Even though our apartment risked flooding from above, a situation that felt so paradoxical, I still had an eager smile plastered across my face for the whole episode!

Now, in Paraguay, thunderstorm-season is beginning anew, and I realize how much I’ve missed the random, lightning-filled deluges that characterize this corner of the world.  As I write this, I’m sitting on our balcony.  The thermometer reads 36 degrees and the wind has been mounting all day.  A tangible energy dominates.  The air is electric.  Every inch of my body seems to tingle.  When I breathe the humid, earthy taste of Paraguay, my mouth salivates.  Birds flap their wings as they return to their nests, calling one another in a manner that seems to communicate urgency.  The street-dogs below are barking. The odd person or car that bustles past is clearly hoping to avoid being caught in the downpour and ankle-deep floods that could ensue.  The tension mounts…

Intermission:

I spend thirty minutes feeding my blue-eyed baby girl blended chicken and butternut squash. She doesn’t want to eat.  I discover that, if I jiggle my belly enthusiastically or contort my face until it hurts, she will approve the meal and agree to take a single bite. Dance.  Clown.  Repeat.  Dance.  Clown.  Repeat.  

End of Intermission: 

Back to thunderstorms!  Lightning is flashing through the clouds now and the temperature has dropped at least ten degrees.  The air is fresh and cool in comparison to the heavy, swamp-butt humidity that dominated all day.  Now, as I sit tucked into the nook of my balcony that splatters the least rain on my laptop, I watch the storm unfold. The rain sheets past the streetlight below looking like shimmering silver tinsel on a Christmas tree.  The trees bend and whip frantically in the wind.  The smell of rain fills my nostrils as bright flashes of light illuminate a leaden sky and thunder cracks all around our apartment building, assaulting me from different angles. I feel alive! 
 
I think that electric feeling of life is one of the reasons I exhibit a childlike excitement when each thunderstorm rolls in.  The intensity and energy of each storm reminds me that life isn’t all dishes, diapers and paperwork-drudgery.  It is filled with wonders too.  Thunderstorms are my occasional reminder to marvel and wonder at some of the beautiful sights, sounds and smells of Paraguay. 

Danielle, I think, secretly enjoys my rush to the designated spot on the balcony with the signs of an impending squall.   My thunderstorm giddiness is largely hidden in public.  Most of you (I now directly address the very few people who read this) will never see that side of me.  But rest assured, whenever a storm rolls in accompanied by rain, lightening, wind and thunder, the bare-foot boy who was entranced by those Alabama-downpours emerges.  I hope he will never go away.