Beautiful Violence

The other night I was planning to head to one of the campus pubs to watch the second half of the France/Portugal game, and being the practical person I am I decided to step out onto the balcony to see what the temperature was like.

I made it no further.

It wasn't yet dark and the sky was a bruised colour. Light purples, dark purples blacks, and the world within my view looked like some sort of natural disco hall. The sky was flickering incessantly with sheet lightning. Flashing again and again with no pause, different areas of the sky flashing milliseconds after other areas. It was beautiful.

Soon after my roommates came home and joined me, just watching the sky spaz out. Very suddenly the bruise darkened, everything went black and the wind was like nothing I've experienced before. It was like all the winds of the world met up over the field outside my balcony and decided to battle to the death. The wind was confused, couldn't decide which way it wanted to blow but figured, as long as I'm blowing in this direction I might as well do it with as much force as I can muster. That I can relate to. My hair was everywhere, I still don't know if was little bits of hail or just debris that was blowing into my eyes. The tall trees below my balcony were bending almost in half, yet everything was so graceful.

I've always loved storms. Well not always, I put in my time in my parent's bed until I figured out that thunder cannot hurt me. But since then whenever a storm is brewing I grab a sweater and head for a balcony, or a big window if one of those isn't available.

They're chaotic, they're destructive, dangerous, unpredictable. All of the things that I am not, all things I don't like, but watching something so big and out of my control happen around me leaves me feeling peaceful.

I saw the biggest, brightest, craziest, most beautiful lighting I have ever seen in my life that night. Some of it burned lines into my eyes, every time I blinked for a number of seconds after the flash I'd see the path the lightning had followed seconds before.

I always sleep best in the middle of a storm.