The Rain, The Thunder, & The Tornado

I love that the title of this blog sounds like an African folktale but that is to be expected. I try to take most of my cues from nature daily. Last night we had a fantastic storm complete with thunder claps and lightening that would rival any Fourth of July. My husband and I sat in the dark and enjoyed the show. Only moments before we were talking about the Orisha Shango and how he manifests as thunder and rain. As Westerners we have a proclivity for complaining about "bad" weather. It makes us sad, annoyed and sometimes angry. It is such an inconvenience. (Sigh, throwing head back dramatically) Fact is we can't eat, drink, heat, cool, I don't know, survive, without the rain. We love when the rain waters our lawn, flowers, crops or fills our reservoirs. However when the torrential rains come and wipe out bridges and homes only then do we curse the nature that brought it...

So as we sat and marveled at the blessing that Shango literally rained down upon us, something else would occur, the tornado warning. The Orisha Oya (wife of Shango) has come to town blowing things this way and that. Oya manifests as wind, violent storms, and forked lightening. Now I know what you are going to say; "There is nothing good about a tornado or violent storm." They are destructive and unpredictable. They kill people and destroy entire neighborhoods and yes all of this is true. However there is another side to all of this, a duality that must also be considered in order to garner truth. It is that nature, just like life, is unpredictable, messy , and sometimes downright dangerous. Often times we literally get chewed up and spit out but the redemptive part is that through all of this comes growth and personal development.The fact of the matter is that the same energy that creates that lovely breeze that blows so tenderly across your face on a summer night also creates the tornado.

We live in a world of duality. "Good" and "Bad" are terms relative to the person who is having the experience. However nature doesn't recognize these parameters. It just seeks to find balance and does what is necessary to do so. Sometimes that means gentle mists and rainbows and other times it means cyclones and splitting trees. . .