I turned 59 today, the ending of another decade. In the wee hours of the day, after staying up until 2:00 a.m with busy tasks, an enormous storm of thunder and lightning broke out. It was useless to try to sleep so I sat up in my living room in the dark watching, listening and experiencing. The lightning lit the mountains and sky over and over, the thunder shaking the ground and the house. Coco kept pacing, pacing. It felt auspicious as a birthday gift. Thunder and lightning just at the turning of the date, to end and begin another decade for me. There have been plenty of thunder and lightning psychologically in my recent life, striking through realities and shaking things up. Physically when too much pressure builds in the atmosphere, lightning strikes to release the tension and balance the atmosphere. Maybe for me personally this birthday middle-of-the-night display portends pressure being released and an atmosphere coming into equilibrium. I welcome that if so, and will be waiting to see how it unfolds.

A particular kind of blessing I get from living in Appalachia is imbibing what is called “white lightning.” The atmospheric lightning began the wee hours of the day, and liquid lightning helped close the day. It’s a good day. Lightning everywhere.