The Hamlet Project

Thunder seemed so much bigger when I was smaller. It used to shake our little wooden house in the hills like someone was trying to snap us out of sleep. We’d stand behind the shaking glass and watch the lightning. Then we’d count between light and thunderclap to reassure ourselves that we were safe – that though thunder shook us, only the lightning strike was dangerous.
We could watch storms coming toward us over the valley and the house down the hill, then watch it roll past.
The fear was bone-deep but thrilling – something so large and so outside of myself.
I could barely comprehend it and all the blue-green hills soaked with the same water that shook with us.