head in the sky, monsoon visions

After a few days of intense sun, the clouds are dark, the sky brooding, the ocean surface dances behind the wind. The air is full of electricity. One of my favorite and most memorable experiences from this part of the world is watching the sea and the sky at the horizon at night. Giant lightening storms light up clouds red and orange. This morning, I was just setting off for a walk and some food along the way but almost as soon as I stepped out, the sky sighed and in its relief, water began to fall. Monsoon rains are complete in their effort and intention. When there is rain, there is little else that one can focus their attention on because it is the show. For example, last night, I had finished supper at a little Thai restaurant and the winds changed, the leaves and branches began to dance and knowing what was to follow, I sat back and got ready to watch. For the next hour, the water fell hard, the street became a river, pedestrians frantically took shelter, and the land magically returned back to the realm of the bull frogs.
So this morning, I went with it and made a U-turn and headed right back to the beach. I stripped down, covered my things in the shadow of a leaning palm tree and covered up my stack of clothing with a small table that was handy. I waded out into the warm water and the drops got bigger and bigger. I dove in completely and let the rain fall around me.

This is one of the most glorious experiences of a lifetime – to be submerged in warm ocean in a monsoon storm. When the droplets get big, the ocean seems to rain upwards. I like to drop down so that the surface of the rolling sea is at my eye level and my straight-ahead vision is a thick atmosphere of upward raining water droplets! In this way, it's as if my head is hanging from the tumultuous clouds of the sea and the silvery mist of wet air around me that blurs anything with a definite line is the sky between heavens.