Lightning (Bug and Other)

As I came home tonight, the sky was full of stars.  Suddenly, though, everything flickered.  The sky itself was green for seconds, parts of seconds, and then it plunged back into the deepest blue.  Lightning from the oncoming storm had ripped away the illusion of calm.

We're still too far away from whatever is coming to hear the thunder, but everything has that horrible stillness that happens right before a big rain, and the last two days, I've been sick in the bed with a migraine, so I am guessing that something epic is marching towards us.

I took the dogs out for a late evening stroll, and as we made our way through the pasture, thousands of little tiny flashes of light filled the low tree limbs and the underbrush.  The lightning bugs, usually to be found at the tops of the trees, were low because of the atmospheric pressure.  It looked like the edges of the woods had been strung with countless fairy lights, but even that beauty managed to be ominous because of the reason for its presence.

There are so many other things that rumble in the distance, flash and then are gone, before sweeping over us.  Of course, I've been reading about the protests in Turkey almost ceaselessly.  It started with a flash, a sudden moment of the people together, and now it has escalated into something widespread and lasting, a storm of some duration.  It's amazing.  I pray that it won't turn any bloodier than it already is.

I am so impressed by the way the protesters are behaving.  The news articles I've read say that everything is kept clean by the protesters themselves even though there are massive (and growing) numbers of them present, that they are sharing supplies and protection with each other, that they have the support of the people in the shops and in the police to the point that stores are opening to them for places of refuge and police are not reporting to work because they refuse to be a part of confronting them.  Even while the Prime Minister calls these protests "undemocratic," even his vice secretary is apologizing for the way they protests have been handled.  It seems that everyone except one is on the same side.  I've never seen anything like it.

The more I read and study of the past, the more fascinated I am with this present.  I pray that we still get to go.  I have to see this remarkable place and these remarkable people for myself.