Your experience, Nicos Hadjicosis!! of standing out and just taking in the beauty and power of the lightening storm, completely resonated with me. I remember, many years ago, when I was a young seminarian, and I was sent to my first pastoral charge/congregation… in Farm Country…Cattle Country in Northern Quebec. I was for the first time in my young life, completely cut off from and far away from all of my family and friends. I couldn’t call them back them, as the cost of long distance phone calls back then, (from land lines…cell phones did not even exist then, let alone texting or the internet…so we had to send actual paper letters, hand-written, and licked and sealed into an envelope…by Canada Post mail. )
I had grown up in Ontario Canada, but was sent to a very isolated rural charge in Quebec…to a French speaking community. My French was pretty minimal back then…but for sure…immersion is the best way to learn a new language. At 22 years old, I was very green, and let’s face it…a bit afraid. But not about to admit that I was afraid, and lonely, to anyone. Chuckle. I was put up in a very old decrepit farm house way out in cattle country…at the end of a very, very, very, lolol long lane. I was completely isolated in that old haunting, one hundred and thirty year old farmhouse. Your experience, Nicos, of standing out and just taking in the beauty and power of the lightening storm, completely resonated with me. I remember, many years ago, when I was a young seminarian, and I was sent to my first pastoral charge/congregation…far away from all of my family and friends, I experienced a sense of being alone, and loneliness and the fear of ‘can I really do this…and make it on my own’ at a deep level, for the first time in my young life. As the rain storm began, I was still inside the very old decrepit farm house, and the power went out. I found my way to find some candles, and lit two candles…holding one. there I stood, in this creaky spooky old farm house, in the complete black of night… way out in cattle country…at the end of a very long lane. I was completely isolated in that old haunting one year old farm house. That darkness was in the house and when I looked out the windows…it was completely dark in every direction for miles around. The whole region was without power. It was there I experienced REAL LONLINESS for the first time. After the busyness of the day, making pastoral visits, etcetera, meetings in the evening, preparing for the Sunday sermon, all the things we as pastors must do, …and then going back to that lonely old house in the dark. One night a massive rain storm, and you can picture a young 22 year old seminarian, scrambling…looking through wooden kitchen drawers, stuffed with all kinds of stuff…and finally finding, in the pitch black…candles in a cupboard. I lit one…and the circle of light spread, and I felt the strength and hope of that light in the darkness.
My father was First Nations…Ojibweh..Annishnabeck…we are of The Bear Clan. Wolf and Deer are also important teachers to us. However, I suddenly realized that this loneliness was born out of disconnection with the Great Mystery, through the busyness of always ministering to others, and then realizing…I stood alone…and needed to connect with Creator through Nature and THAT kind of prayer.
I needed to get out in Nature…and feel the touch of CREATOR…for I knew in my instincts…that was how I could feel comfort and strength for my new loneliness of the young 22 year old pastor…alone.
I went right out in the rain. I sat on a split rail fence…and spread my arms wide, and raised my face to the sky, and began to feel such joy as the coolness of the rain fell on my face, my eyelids, my tongue…my strong young arms…soaking my short hair…filling my heart with joy and power. And then the lightening storm started to roll in. I yelled out “Yes! COME! BRING IT! THANK_YOU!” and laughed from the bottom of my heart with joy and gratitude.
I experienced the power and the orchestration…the beauty and the majesty of that storm.
My heart was overflowing with such joy and re-empowerment, and gratitude for that experience of Creator and Nature…and Love…yes…Divine Love… harmonizing the Universe. I remembered the Native Teaching, that The Lightening Ones…come from Father Sky, to re-energize Mother Earth. This Lightening is NEEDED on the earth. It does realign energy lines that cover the entire globe…like a grid…like coordinates…all naturally made. It is all so perfect. Ki-Megwetch …Thank-you Very Much for sharing about your experience so powerfully, of Lightning storms and gratefulness in the Tarhumara region. Ah what power and joy. Blessings Be. Submitted by Jim Featherpen.

I am so thrilled and blessed to have found this site. Thank-you Katie, Kristi, Jeseph, Rose & Saoirse and all who work together to make this Gratefulness Team and site such an enriching spiritual space to visit. Yesterday, I took a beautiful walk in the snow, perhaps the last squal of this winter. I was reminded how there is beauty in all the seasons of life. I had parked my car by the side of the country road. An indigenous woman put on her parka, and walked out to my car, leaving her warm shelter, to make sure that no one was stranded there. This was a big moment to me. Blessings pour down in abundance. The more I notice, the more they seem to appear. Of course, they are always happening. It is just so good to notice. There are no small moments, and no small blessings.