And the rains fall.

Last night, I woke up tossing and turning, hot and sweaty, to hear a thunderstorm announce its presence in the sky. At one point around four am, a thunderclap shook the earth and was closely followed by a flash of flaming lightning that left me wondering for a moment if I had just been struck. I think that there were flames following the strike and while I tried to orient myself in the night, I went over the electronics in our house trying to remember if anything was plugged in before recognizing that the power was off anyhow. Then, as I realized we were not in a state of emergency, my thoughts drifted to all the inhabitants of the nearby settlements in their clay waddle-and-daub huts with thatched or tin roofs, knowing that the structures were no match for nature in all her glory. My thoughts and prayers stayed with them until I drifted back to sleep.