Waiting it Out

There’s nothing quite like a Bangkok thunderstorm. It comes on with a flash of light so piercing that the sky is momentarily filled with fluorescence, and a crack so loud that it can be felt all along the spine. The sky seems to be getting bigger, darkening, morphing into a dark grey pool of opacity. But the rain hasn’t begun just yet. If you’re lucky, you’ve already finished lunch on the street and are now safely back in your office or apartment. For those who are less fortunate and still out on the soi, may God have mercy on your soul. I watch as the first drops fall. Those caught out in the open scramble like cockroaches into whatever shelter they can find- 7/11 storefronts, BTS underpasses, make-shift aluminum sheds that were probably created for this exact purpose. They know their time is limited, and that it will be completely useless to trying to conquer the weather by walking through it.

The rain begins to fall harder, coming down in sheets that put a thin white veil over the view of buildings I can see from the window. All I can hear is the sound of pit-pat, pit-pat, with the occasional crack of lightning or boom of thunder. Nobody is out now. The storm inspires cozy thoughts- everyone banded together in their homes and businesses, waiting out the storm together. No matter how big and strong and tough we think we are, we are no match for the wrath of Mother Nature. We know our place in this particular stand-off.

So we wait out the storm. We hope it doesn’t go on too long, as we all have very important things to do. But for a moment, we are totally helpless. We can’t change the situation. We don’t shake our fists at the sky and ask why it insists on being so terribly inconvenient. We know that the storm will end eventually – they always do. We just have to wait it out.