My Little Piece of Heaven

The kids stand on the balcony totally amazed that the sky can just instantly open up like that and let sheets of rain pound the earth. Their excitement takes me back to one of my favorite childhood memories.
I loved to sit on the front porch with my family and watch a thunderstorm roll in. The air would become stale right before the storm hit. I was never scared. It was exhilerating to sit there and watch the clouds billow up on eachother and get blacker and blacker. We could see the lightning from far away. As the storm got closer the thunder would echo through the town. The town was small, and this was truly fun entertainment.
I always hoped a tornado would hit. Now that would have been real entertainment. Except there was no way I was getting into that basement, if that's what you would call it. I thought that the tornado would pick me up and twirl me around like Dorothy. There were many tornado warnings and watches, and several hit nearby, but none brought their destruction to our town.
It wouldn't be until I was 21 that I would have my first real tornado encounter. Sitting right smack dab in the middle of a forming cyclone, in a car that was rocking back and forth, with baby Louisa sound alseep in the back. She loves to hear that story. She thinks it's so funny that she never woke up.
At the end of our short down pour, the kids yell, "Rainbow, rainbow!" So I grab the baby, and the camera, and run outside. I am pretty sure the baby had no clue what I was pointing at, but as always, he had a smile on his face.
This is my little piece of heaven. The kids have united in one cause; the beauty of nature. The world is still for one moment. And I am reminded that there is more out there besides dirty diapers, housework, and bickering kids.