Where the lightning begins.

There was a thunder and lightning storm tonight. I was watching it and it really made me start to think.

When I was little, I used to get really scared of thunder during storms. The only thing I could ever do was sit up all night until the storm ended. Every time there was a storm it was terrible because even before the thunder started I'd see the lightning in the distance or see the warning on TV, and I would just get terrified, not only because of the coming noise, but because I just dreaded the coming night, knowing that I wouldn't get any sleep. When you're little, you know, 5, 6, 7 years old, the night is an incredibly dark and long thing, and it can make you feel so lonely.

One night, I was in first grade, Erin woke up from the thunder and saw me sitting in the corner on my bed, probably crying, and she called me over. So I climb up onto her bunk bed and she tells me to look out the window. Have you ever really looked at the sky during a thunder storm? It is a terrifyingly beautiful thing. There are colors in it that you won't see anywhere else in anything in the whole world. She told me to watch for the lightning to see where it started. Watching lightning is completely different from watching TV or a movie or just everyday life. The longer you watch the brighter the lightning gets. It's so powerful, but it's gone so fast.

Since that night, I have never been afraid in a storm. Some things can seem so terrible, but when you look at them just a little closer, you see power and beauty. As you look at them and see the bigger picture, the situation gets brighter and brighter and brighter and you start to see things that you never even knew were there; things that you may never see again, but they are beautiful.