Phosphorescence

by Julia Baird

‘First is the sheer, raw experience of confronting an elemental force of nature — uncontrolled and unpredictable — which is at once awesome, magnificent, dangerous and picturesque. Few life experiences can compare with the anticipation of a chaser while standing in the path of a big storm, in the gusty inflow of warm, moist gulf wind sweeping up into a lowering, darkening cloud base, grumbling with thunder as a great engine begins to turn.’ Then there was the ‘experience of something infinite, a sense of powers at work and scales of movement that so transcend a single man and overwhelm the senses that one feels intuitively (without really seeking) something eternal — but ephemeral — almost a conscious thought, but just below the surface. As when a vertical 50,000-foot wall of clouds glides silently away to the east (intermittent, distant thunder) and goes golden in a setting sun against a deep, rich azure sky, one can only pause and look and wonder.’