nature's beauty | there is peace in the storm



Aren't natures storm's beautiful? I mean, they scare you to death in some cases, but they are still beautiful.

Sunday morning, I wake up early to darkness. It feels like night because of the dark grey clouds hovering over our town. I eat my usual Sunday breakfast (which is always cereal because it's a quick thing before church) and then start making some cards for some graduations we are going to go to later.

By then all four of my siblings are up and being picky about the kinds of cereal we have (believe me when I say I live with the pickiest people on earth). Then, mom asks dad to come talk to her in the bedroom. It's started raining hard, but the clouds that I can see out the patio door are the normal thunderstorm-grey color.

Well, mom comes out of her room and orders us all to get dressed and get out to the car - by then I can tell something's wrong because she was watching the weather on the news earlier and she's using the same voice she did when there was a tornado that touched a mile or two from our house a few years back. I'm hurrying to get my toddler sister and I dressed and out the door (she usually falls into my hands, being the older sister and all) and I start getting really scared. Mom keeps telling us to get out to the car now, and I know that can't be good at all.

My ten-year-old sister has this huge fear of tornadoes where she starts shaking and sobbing from fear. Surprisingly, she doesn't seem scared (but I know she is 'cause she's making nervous jokes to lighten the mood) and then I start shaking. Like, I'm shaking so hard I can barely keep my hand steady enough to unlock the front door.

After all of us are assembled in the car I finally see why my mom was acting so urgent. On the West side of our house, the side I couldn't see from the patio door, is this massive wall of green clouds. We're at the very front of the worst storm I've ever seen in my life.

I get more and more scared as the rain drops wash down our windows and the wind speed increases, bending the trees very far sideways. Thunder so loud it hurts my ears is cracking all around us accompanied by strikes of lightning here and there. By then, I'm desperate to reach my grandparents' house (where we were heading because their house has a basement and ours doesn't). Mom's going very much past the speed limit, though nobody would care much because of the wall of green clouds chasing us.

All of a sudden, the lightning flashes purple against the green clouds and I smile. It's so beautiful, I think. With the raging of the storm comes the beauty of nature. A thunderstorm's rainbow. Purple and green and blue flashing across the sky, like colorful sunshine.

There's peace in the storm.

I am still a bit nervous, but my fear is gone. I'm comforting my toddler sister when she cries because of the thunder instead of cowering in my seat. The next few minutes are a blur as we drive up our grandparents' driveway and I rush my sister into the house, laughing with her about our clothes getting wet.

The morning we spend at my grandparents' is spent by me watching to clouds. But, not for hail or tornadoes (though I was hoping it wouldn't happen) but at the beauty of the storm. The water rushing down the driveway like a waterfall, the trees dancing and rustling their leaves in the wind, the green light the clouds are casting over the land.

I'm not scared anymore, because there is beauty in the storm.

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PS: Here's the hint about the surprise you guys have been asking for: it's old but new, where thoughts are told, and my opinions are translated in bold.

Do you think there is beauty in the storm? Can you guess where the surprise is by the hint? Have you ever had a tornado touch near you?