as i was driving on the interstate this weekend, i... came upon a storm system. that's about as best i can describe it. "came upon". it was about 8:00pm, and about a fifteen minute's drive ahead i saw ominous clouds and several bolts of lighting. i steeled myself for the joy of driving in a thunderstorm at dusk. as i approached, it turned out that the storm was directly west of, but not quite on, i-75. and so, for about half an hour, i took long glances at the system to my left as i drove alongside it. i took note that i could actually see the rain coming down from the west; as i yet traveled along in relative dryness, ready for a downpour at any moment by the darkening clouds all around me. in another fifteen minutes i reached my exit, where i was headed west [of course]. as i finished the turn, i realized that i again could see the rain -- only this time, i noted that it was coming pretty much horizontally. in big gusts. really hard.

fun.

so, it's looking pretty gloomy. dark thunderclouds, downpour, wind gusts like there's no tomorrow. my little cavalier, small but mighty, plugged its way through [albeit around 40 mph]. and then, suddenly, i was out of the storm. the pounding on the roof ceased, the wipers skittered across the less-slick windshield. and, i realized for the first time in about an hour, that it was still light out. a beautiful sunset was before me... oranges, pinks, blues. so focused was i on the darkness of the storm that i had completely forgotten it wasn't yet nighttime. the sun was still there, doing its thing... regardless of my utter unmindfulness of It.

there's a metaphor in there that would do me well to keep in mind.