We have probably all been there–the morning after the storm. Violent weather moved through our area last night. It seemed to last all night. Lightning, thunder, strong winds, the sounds of wood bending and sometimes breaking, the rushing of waters in the creeks.

The lightning is invariably the part that scares me most. I feel my finitude when lightning flashes. The cracks of whiplashing electricity, and the webbing of light in the night sky, it’s all sufficient to scare me. Even our Cavalier King Charles stood up on the bed when she’d normally be sleeping, looking at us, as if to say, “When will this pass?”

CJ and I were up almost all of the night with the storms. But we made it safely through.

When I left to teach this morning, as I was leaving our neighborhood, I crossed the water and had to pause. Beauty arrested me, even and especially after the storm.