March 26, 2007

Moody

We get rain, hours and hours of drenching rain, until the ditches overflow and muddy water creeps across roads, and then sometimes the sun comes bursting from behind the clouds, even as the rain comes dancing down into puddles and warm white mist rises from the melting banks of snow. All afternoon we had flashes of lightning, snapping through the windows as if some drunkenly happy giant was taking photos of my house. I love a good thunderstorm, even though a low pressure systems can give me a migraine, or perhaps I love that a thunderstorm often releases the pressure in my head. Up at camp in the summer, storms come chugging and crashing up the river, gathering strength as they travel toward us. When I am lying in a small nylon tent, I savor the rush of night air bending the flimsy walls of the tent, swooshing the branches of pine trees outside the tent, and the crash of thunder smashing up against sky with all that incredible of power.

During the muffled white quietness of winter, the only sound I hear at night comes from the wind chimes on my porch, a quiet melody played by the wind. Spring, on the other hand, comes barging into this part of the world like a teenage boy who moves restlessly from drum set to piano – swinging drum sticks, hitting cymbals, fingers racing over keys – and then switching on lights, opening the refrigerator, leaping back to the drum set, pouring juice, sliding onto the piano bench, changing his mind every ten seconds, his energy filling the spaces around him with big swirling crashes of music and rainlight and mud.

Sky

8 comments:

Kyla said...

I love thunderstorms, too. It doesn't get much better than curling up in bed with a book on a rainy day.

Anonymous said...

A great analogy.

YourFireAnt said...

Rainlight. Good word, Jo(e). Good post.

FA

Mona Buonanotte said...

I could eat your imagery!

Wind chimes...yes...the one we hung in the front yard tinkles and tings all winter, but the sound is now becoming Heavy Metal thunder.

Yankee, Transferred said...

OOOH such a lovely post. I love coming over here...but you know that. We get the most amazing thunderstorms here in the mid-south, unlike anything I ever encountered in New England. Really amazing and awe-inspiring. And I LOVE them.

Marcia said...

Much of yesterday was spent reassuring my puppy, who does not like "thunder boomies." She's totally wiped out today because she spent yesterday in a state of anxious alertness moving into panic every time it would thunder and she thought someone was breaking in/crashing through our house with a train.

Lovely post and imagery, as always.

BeachMama said...

Great post. I loved the thunder yesterday, it was like the final umph to push us past winter and into Spring. Today is sunny and hot, yes hot! I know it won't be like this tomorrow so I am relishing in it today.

Lilian said...

wow
I love the spring weather/ teenage boy metaphor. my husband loves storms, thunder and lightning and I've learned to love them too.