Chasing thunderstorms

I had an interesting day. a good one albiet, but an intresting day nonetheless. I had a day where there was a thunderstorm so bad, the lights flickered in our centers. My kids (Being a bit older) seemed ok. But after class after I went down and spoke to my parents I came back up stairs and there was a little girl her head buried in her moms shoulder and tears just streaming down her face as her mom attempted to explain to me that she was scared of thunderstorms. I went into my giant room of magic and got a dumbo look alike and explained through a translator that at Disney English we have magic that protects us from thunderstorms and that Dumbo would protect her. It didn't work but in some ways at least it made her smile. (I'm not sure she believed me.)

On my way home I got to walk home in that thunderstorm, and two things caught my eye. The first was a little boy standing on a scooter holding hte handlebars between his moms legs. THis is something that I commonly see her, but what caught my attention was a when the light was right, I saw he had tears just streaming down his little face. IN that moment a reminder of the past came up in my heart and.. quite frankly it hurt. See, I used to be terrified of thunderstorms, absolutely scared, but I remembered a night my mom helped cure that to a point. It was in the big house my parents built when I was a kid (as a kid that house was SOOO big, I went back as an adult and in some ways it was soo much smaller, than I remembered). THis particular house overlooked a huge beautiful mountain range and my parents had wisely built the whole back of the house with windows. It was stunning view of the valley and the mountains (some of my other favorite memories.) One particular night there was a thunderstorm so strong that it made those windows and the whole friggin house shake (thats how I remember it anyways) and I remember gooing running first to my sisters room and because both of us were scared we went upstairs and crawled into my parents bed. My mom brought us downstairs and lowered all the curtains on the windows and we sat there the three of us and saw one of the most spectacular light shows (all the lights off) I have ever seen.

Tonight walking home and seeing that little boy absolutely terrified of the thunderstorm made my heart just ache for those sweet memories, for the way my family SHOULD be, instead of how it is. I wanted to grab that little boy and cradle him in my arms and simple say "Hey buddy, its going to be ok." We can't always protect the ones we love, can we?

I finished my walk home with Rascall Flatt's song "Things that matter" blaring in my ears and I stopped halfway on the bridge home wishing I'd had my camera and watched a beautiful thunder and lighting storm move away, wishing for the past. When I got home I grabbed my camera and tried to capture the remnants of the spectacular scene I had watched, and caught a pretty shitty picture actually.
In some ways this picture reminded me of the state of my own heart tonight. I wished tonight that memories with my family like that were still being made. Memories where my sister, mom and I enjoyed things like this again, and walked life together again. That's what I miss the most I think. the walking like together thing.

Raise a beer with me to the memories we face.. the things we are reminded of. The things we hold onto.

Things that matter...


Things