Sure, we've all heard thunder and rain, and have seen all kinds of lightning. But until you've seen a thunderstorm in the Big Bend you have not heard God's Symphony.

The desert is a place that evokes strong feelings of either hate or love. Those that love it are the ones that can understand the ache of seeing it so dry the cactuses can't bloom, the sight of the ground as dry as gunpowder, or the sight of a single quail instead of a covey of them. Then God decides to start His Symphony.

It starts in the distance and moves in to you. The colors are rare and can only be seen in a desert storm. I believe that God saved the best colors of His palette for this area. There is a full range of browns and grays and bright colors, which are astounding with the flashes of lightning streaking across the sky, illuminating the landscape. The deepest rose you can imagine, black as deep as a starless night in the middle of the ocean, and an orange so beautiful you can scarcely believe that color exists. These are just some of the colors in His storm and are the beginning notes before the major song.

Then as the storm gets closer you can hear the Symphony begin, as the freshening wind picks up, bringing a welcome cooling. Sporadically, with a crash here and a rumble there, like the sounds of drums and cymbals, it starts its journey down the canyons of the Big Bend. This crescendo of sound heralds the sounds of the life giving music of the land. It starts out softly, with breaks of time between the lightening flashes and the crash of thunder, like a distant battle just over the horizon. As it gets closer the delay of sound shortens until there is no time between the bright flash and the thunderous crash, until you feel the excitement, as though you are in the midst of an ancient battle, sometimes fading, then getting louder, and then fading once more. But never totally quiet.

When the rain hits, it hits hard, at times containing hail, then tapers off to a soft soaking rain. Moisture is the essence of all life in a desertous area. It is what brings on the most beautiful sound known in the desert, the sound of water, of plants blooming forth and animals coming out of their homes. The sun behind the clouds turns the land into many indescribable colors. In order to hear these sounds you must be extremely still and listen with your heart, eyes, and ears. It takes all of your senses. This song does not last long and if you are too busy you can miss it. The sound is also fragile, a sound that has had to learn to adapt to it's surroundings.

Then the sun returns, the Symphony fades, leaving the memory of the song in the seeds of the flowers, stored in the cactus, and in hidden underground springs, and in the hearts of those who love this land.

The desert is once more quiet and peaceful.