Our dog Frances is really afraid of storms.  Ollie is too.  I wonder why some dogs are afraid of the big storms, and others go completely unfazed.   I guess that is true of humans too.

But it worries her.  That is for sure.  It makes that fierce, strong dog… stand and quiver.

I used to be deathly afraid of storms.  Now, I sort of like them.  I do.  Not the kind where they have the potential of becoming severe.  THAT exposes the shear power of nature…. right before our little eyes.

The power of nature is apparent every day though.  If we look.  That power takes shape in many different ways.  It manifests itself through life and death… of animals and plants.  It stirs in the wind, and beats down with the hot sun.  Or suspends the world in frigid cold.

We certainly always take notice of the lightning strikes, the big winds, and the events which take the form of severity.  But there is just as much power in the calm of nature.  It connects us to something much deeper.

I am… just now in my life… learning this.

I had felt it, at times before, mostly in magnificence and awe.  Like walking through a Redwood Forest, or seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time… or finding stunning waterfalls… or viewing expanse of the ocean.  Those feelings were brief and fleeting though.

But that same exact power can be felt by laying your body down against the earth… or giving a morning salutation to the rising of the sun.  It can be found by sitting with the quiet stillness of rocks.  Or listening to the sweet music of the Spring’s breeze.

We are in this place.  And it is in us.  But our being and all those beings around us… have a deepest self.  It lies within us…. at the level of an invisible essence.  Our heart.  Our spirit.  Our soul.   I think it is indestructible.  Our true nature.

I am not sure we can ever truly know it with our minds. I keep trying  to understand it…. unsuccessfully.  I think we only know it when we aren’t thinking at all.  We come to know it when our minds are still.  Still in our world, and still with nature.   It happens when we TRULY find the present…. when we are COMPLETELY in the NOW.

And here we are.  Standing with the lightning and the thunder.  Feeling, and noticing that power… which simply flows from one place to the next…

Listen to roar.  Listen to the quiet.  And listen to the within.

You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.  —  Swami Vivekananda

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart.  —  Mahatma Gandhi

Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes. —  Walt Whitman

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