This Is A Forest

I just returned from the Pacific Northwest, after exploring the possibility of living there. Everyone and everything was wonderful; I could picture myself as part of that community. However, the uniformly gray sky and the constant rain depressed me badly.

Returning to the Southwest made me ecstatic! 

Phoenix's 105 degrees made me laugh. During the early afternoon to middle-of-the-night drive home, I never took my eyes from the sky and horizon. That night, I gasped each time in-cloud lightning made a cloud visible in the black sky. And the first thing I did the next day was take a long hike. 

Just so you can understand my perspective...

This is a forest:

These are clouds:

Here is rain in the distance 

and monsoon lightning.

The Monsoons

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The voice of Thy thunder was in the whirlwind;

the lightnings lighted up the world; 

the earth trembled and shook.

 - Tehillim 77:19

In the desert, we remember that rain is a blessing. Weather patterns have changed enough that, in the American Southwest, the monsoon season has become agony. We wait, gazing at the clouds or smears of rain in the distance, wondering when the winds, lightning, and brief, torrential rainfalls will touch us. Where are the storms and the rainbows? Where are the male and female rains?

Yesterday and today have been dark and wonderful! Even well dressed people take off their shoes and splash through water running in the streets. Thunder rolls again and again. People here are happy today.  I've been walking outside, listening to the thunder and letting the rain touch my face, lifting my hair so it would touch the back of my neck.

I tried to recall the blessings. (Thank goodness for Google.)

For thunder, the blessing is, "Blessed are You, Eternal One, ruler of the universe, for your strength and power fill the world." Baruch atah adonai eloheinu melech ha'olam shekocho u'g'vurato malei olam.

For lightning (and other natural wonders) we say, "Blessed are You, Eternal One, ruler of the universe, who makes the works of creation." Baruch atah adonai eloheinu melech ha'olam oseh ma'aseh v'reishit. 

And the unusually long blessing to be said when seeing a rainbow is "Blessed are You, Eternal One, ruler of the universe, who remembers the covenant, and is faithful to His covenant, and keeps His promise." Baruch atah adonai eloheinu melech ha'olam zocheir ha'brit v'ne'eman bivrito v'kayam b'ma'amaro.