Lessons from severe thunderstorms

This weekend definitely turned into a weekend of having to face my fears and move beyond them. To accept that life goes on and I must go on with it even when I am tested to the point of feeling overwhelmed and afraid.

It started on Saturday night after my family and I enjoyed a wonderful belated birthday dinner for me at the Dining Room at The Lighthouse in Bermuda. It was one of those picture perfect evening when the sky was clear, the setting sun perfect and we were able to see the splendour and beauty of the place we call home by looking down on it from the picturesque setting of the Lighthouse. The Sound looking as enchanting as ever. The South shore calm but with the tell-tale sign that the weather was going to change because of the haze that hung on the horizon. The evening just perfect. My husband, son, daughter and I standing outside taking in the beauty of our island home before going inside to a wonderful dinner full of lively conversations and love.

Then we went to bed that night full of love and possibility only to be woken by lights flashing rapidly and repeatedly through our windows almost like someone was playing with the lights of the world. Flickering. Dancing. Constant – almost too constant for lightning. Then the boom of thunder would come but not in harmony with the lightning almost as if it was taking a back seat to the lightning. Because the lightning was so rapid my husband got up to see if it was the meteoric showers that had been promised days before. Only to come back to report that it was just the lighting – a strange show of it lighting up the sky in quick succession making it seem as if there was something alien about it.

He came back to bed wanting to open the blinds so he could see the show from bed much to my chagrin. I was trying my best to be brave. Trying my best to appreciate all things in nature including this spectacular yet frightening thunderstorm that was happening. Trying to ration how a picture perfect evening could turn into such a violent storm.

There was no way I wanted to really see the storm so I asked my husband to please keep the blinds shut as I talked myself into falling back asleep. Telling myself it is what it is and there is nothing I can do about what is unfolding because it is what is meant to happen. Snuggling my head into my daughter’s as she had come into the bed when my husband had gotten up. Trying my hardest to block out the sound of the storm and the pounding rain.

And then it was the next morning, relieved to realise the light streaming through my window was the sunlight. The storm well gone. The day bright, crisp and cool. Everything looking relieved after the passage of the storm. Me grateful for making it through that storm. And seeing how quickly life, circumstances can change from calm to storm and back again.

And then I left Bermuda to fly to Denver. Only to once again run into severe storms last night as we were in the air from Atlanta en route to Denver when our airplane ran into the severe thunderstorms that were affecting the southern and mid-west regions of the United States. Sending us rolling and rocking as the pilots tried to get around the thunderstorms. A man sitting next to the window snapping pictures of the lightning that was flashing all around us. His fascination was in direct contrast to my utter terror. My teeth gritted together. My palms sweaty. My whole being shaking from the storms going on all around us.  Fork lighting lighting up the black clouds. Cumulus, a word I truly understood as I looked at the angry clouds.

This time I truly had to surrender to what was happening around me. Let go I told myself because there was definitely nothing I could do to control the situation that was happening. I was in an airplane several thousand feet in the air in the midst of severe thunderstorms I told myself so the only thing to do was to accept where I was and to accept what was meant to be would be.

Miraculously I was able to let go of the fear that had been gripping me. Closing my eyes and saying a prayer to the Universe as my body relaxed. A total sense of calm came over me once I decided I had to just surrender to all that was happening. Leaving me at peace. So much so that when the plane dipped and dropped and rattled and shook I accepted it for what it was.  Then like magic we were through the storm, the plane ride became so smooth that at first it felt like we were not moving but we were. And the smoothness of the plane ride matched the calmness I felt inside.

Teaching me that life sometimes may be rocky and frightening taking us down paths that bring us face to face with our fear but as long as we believe, have faith and trust in the Universe, we can accept that we are always where we are meant to be. And when we surrender to that fact, we will eventually find the calm after the storm and we will feel at peace with the journey we call life.

So grateful to have made it through two nights where I had to face my fear of lightning and thunder by trusting I am always where I am meant to be and having faith that whatever is meant to unfold will. And to enjoy every single minute of life because it changes in an instant – every instant.