I love this earth

A couple of weeks ago, Nate and I took a walk alone to the beach at night. We laid under the stars and watched two separate storms off at sea. The one to the right was fierce, with lightening stricking almost constantly, and igniting an orange hue in the sky. At first I couldn't believe it was lightening. I breathed in the salty ocean air that seemed to hang in the stillness of that clear night and mentioned how nice it would be to just sleep there that night. I also told him that that is one thing I miss about the mainland--thunderstorms.

Well, I think Mother Nature heard me because at about midnight that night (we didn't sleep on the beach, thankfully) a huge storm crashed right above us. Kezia ran into bed with us and she and I got to enjoy the CRASH boom BANG of the thunder right above us, with the rain pounding the pavement and lightening casting shadows around the room. There seemed to be two storms, because one would be a bit distant and then all of a sudden a loud BANG would shake the building. I LOVED it!!! I fought sleep so I could hear the whole storm. I even tried to keep Kezia up a bit so we could share it together.

Then the other night I was driving and saw a shooting star. Seen them before, yadda yadda yadda. But this one was extraordinary. It sparkled. Not like a twinkling star, but like God tipped a jar of silver glitter over on its tail. I thought for a second that maybe it was a firework, but it was too high in the sky and too angled like a shooting star to be one. Has anyone seen that before?

And then the other day I was driving on the freeway. The sky to the right was a saggy draggy rainy grey and it highlighted a giant vibrant rainbow in its foreground. I got so excited I called to the girls to take a look. The colors were so bold. Then we noticed it was a double rainbow! And then we saw they were both full rainbows!! It was so cool, and this is coming from someone who lives in the "rainbow state"--it was the coolest rainbow I have ever seen. It was right next to the freeway. We passed through a valley of trees and the ends of the rainbow wrapped around the trees like candy wrappers. You know when you see a rainbow ahead of you and then you drive a bit and then it's behind you? Have you ever been in a rainbow? As we passed the valley, the rainbow was all around us to the right and shining through the windshield. It seemed to move forward at the same speed we were driving. And then, like stepping out of a colorful waterfall, we found ourselves on the other side. I had to keep reminding myself that I was on the freeway driving so I didn't get too distracted. But it was also cool to think that all of us people on the freeway were experiencing that same spectacle in the sky...and somehow driving straight.