As scientific understanding has grown, so our world has become dehumanized. Man feels himself isolated in the cosmos because he is no longer involved in nature.…Thunder is no longer the voice of an angry god, nor is lightning his avenging missile. No river contains a spirit, no Tree is the life principle of a man, no Snake the embodiment of wisdom, no mountain cave the home of a great demon. No voices now speak to man from Stones, Plants, and Animals, nor does he speak to them believing they can hear. His contact with nature has gone, and with it has gone the profound emotional energy of this connection.

I think of this passage by C.G. Jung every time the heavens break.

It begins with a quiet lowing, tense with the blue-black buildup of emotions that can no longer be held. Thunder reminds us that there is something, someone else, ever-present, witnessing, watching, knowing, as we scurry about our everyday lives, consumed by the vicissitudes of self-absorption, oblivious with nary a glance at the vastness of the cosmos and Nature’s infinite perfection.

Usually, the warnings ask for and seek gentle conciliation. The hardened heart of unrepenting disregard, however, has lasted too long and only the eruption of an anguished demand seems able to pierce the armor of separation that our species hides behind to mask its birthmark of vulnerability.

Sky whispers turn to bellows so overwhelmingly powerful and penetrating that the noisy, busy, endless track of the mind stops cold. Even though this inner silencing may last but a moment, the message has been delivered. We can no longer call ourselves immune. While growing up here, I loved the thunderstorms that came upon us in the summer. All of a sudden, we were stripped of any veil that might have hung between us and Nature’s sparkling mystery. We were no longer set apart from the swaying cottonwood, clarion jays, sleek and knowing cougars, and massive oaks. In an instant, we were alight with the magic of the land. We lived and breathed as one.

These days, the frisson of excitement quickly turns to gripping fear because I know that the voices of the sky can flash from sound to flames, uncaring of who lies within its fiery path. At these moments, I try to retrieve that sense of magic to hear and listen to what the Snakes, Stones, Plants, and Animals are saying: Find contentment with inner silence, because that’s when the Trees keep talking.