From: Morvern, Scotland
To:
Dear Friend,
A few days ago, we had four hours of rain, thunder and lightning during the night. I have seen some spectacular thunderstorms in tropical countries, but never have I seen Scottish skies resound with thunder that shook the house and lightning which tore holes in the sky.
Watching out the window of my tin-covered house in my remote location, I kept thinking of how my ancestors would have experienced a storm like this one.
Down the road from here, there are the remains of a village which was lived in until the Scottish clearances, although you can still see the outlines of what were homes. And I imagined, if a storm like this came when those people lived there, the rain would have made it through the thatched roofs, and they would have been praying to this loud, angry god to forgive them.
Some of the thunder booms made me jump; they sounded like war, the lightning so frequent and bright like a whole-sky strobe. In Scotland, our thunderstorms are usually mild and short. This time. no easy sleep and no easy passing.
The farmers I worked with in Nicaragua had a fear of the weather. A sense of reverence for its unpredictability and capability to change their world. Rain had power after all, to influence a harvest, an income, a life. That’s what I learned in Nicaragua: a sense of not having control. A worldview which does not blindly believe it has dominance.
And when I lay last night in my wee hut, listening to the sky being shaken and the world being commanded by unseen forces, that is what I thought about.
What people who had reverence for nature would have made of it. What those bangs and flashes would change if my day were made of soil and seed.
What we see is that the weather is different from what it was, but we have no reason to integrate that knowledge. No sticky, changed soil to dig through the rest of the season.
Just a modern life to get back to, another quiet knowing to bear, but not one that stays with us. Even though the sky was very loud and had a voice so unmistakably clear.
Till next time, friends,
Catriona
Prompt
What message is the sky writing to you?
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