The Long Journey

For the past couple of weeks every evening that I have run I have been caught in the most spectacular storms....ending with me soaking wet but grinning as I finally walk in to the house...I love it.

These are those warm evening thunderstorms that are particular to Pittsburgh, which in my belief because of the three valleys, produce some of the most spectacular storms I have ever witnessed. I have sat on the Cathedral of Learning lawn, the newly green grass soft as the breeze caressing my face and hair both warm and chilled as the air can not decide which it is, the currents fight for their place in the sky, and watched spectacular thunderstorms pass by.
I watch, completely enraptured, as huge greyish purple clouds reached miles high into the sky, looming over the Romanesque buildings that surround the open parks now quiet of the people minutes ago that had been enjoying the warm fading sunlight, now turning the massive clouds the warm colors of the twilight,....then the lightning illuminates them in hues of colors not captured by photo or brush alike. These are my favorite storms...they sail down the valleys, and nature's spectacle shows off as it paints the sky in luminous pinks and blues and greens and whites....this huge storm moves slowly as some great beast of a dragon that spews forth cloud and light from its jaws, it's thundering roar sounding in my very chest as it echos off  the towers and valley's. I realize as it begins to soar over head, that I may need to take shelter. Large drops of cool rain fall from the opening heavens as I wait in the red doored nook of the Heinz chapel, and watch the storm dragon rage against the intricate stone work protecting me. Soon, however, the great beast soars on, leaving streaks of light in it's wake, now softly flickering against the night sky...I follow it slowly back home. My wet clothes and shoes allow me to do some much needed puddle splashing on my trek back...the ripples of water making the twilight reflections dance...
The sky deepens into a dark velvet hue, all the clouds swept free by the storm dragon's winds...and stars slowly begin to appear. I gaze far off into those depths through the trees, bringing a sense of grandeur and peace to my soul which had hours before been like that storm, raging and windswept. My life has its great peaks and deep valleys, raging storms and gentle breezes, and nature seems to like to mimic this...or perhaps it is the other way around...well anyhow....the stars always comfort me, they bring that sense of something else out there listening, watching and waiting to hear your voice...in a wish, a prayer, a spoken dream. And a  night sky like this seems to me a great cathedral of the heavens and I have to but whisper my prayers into them....enchanted, I gaze, watching the sliver of Diana's bow sail above the stone and metal buildings, and my favorite stars, the great Orion, appear on the horizon....
My muscles, tired from the interrupted run urge me inside...I oblige them with one final look over my shoulder at the night sky, now peaceful.......but far off in the distance a cloud is illuminated briefly with light and promises more storms tonight...I smile and close the door behind me...



  ~To My Dad...I miss you....