And then the Thunderstorm came

Loud and relentless. Seemingly out of nowhere. Such an incredible sunset we had. Unique. Bright red. I could already hear the rumbling in the back of the mountains. Darkness slowly moving across the sky not only because the end of the day was breaking. It's 7.30pm. I put wood in the Sauna fire for the third time. It's already reached almost 80 degrees. The oven is burning. I'm sweating while outside the air is becoming fresh from the night and the wind gradually picking up. I leave the sauna, I can feel the rain coming. Not the first time, nothing new up here in our open most beautiful panoramic spot. The thunders mostly coming accompanied with the dawn. Today it should be different. Not the time but the outcome.

I go to cover the campfire I've just stacked up minutes before, run up the stairs to close the windows for the yoga dome. Already heavy raindrops are crushing down on me when I run back into the house. My friend is coming out of the room. Asking if I was working today as again all the lotuses must be open. I slip over my large rain cover and run outside to take on the lotus in front of us. By now the wind has picked up to become a fully grown storm. I've never closed the tents before. Hail is crushing down on the ground and my head. I already become unstable. Crawling up the wooden steps I try to close the door, almost trembling down from the strength of wind that keeps growing and picking up on speed. The plastic from my rain parker in my face it's difficult to see anything anymore. I realize the door point towards the mountain side is open as well. With all my energy I crawl inside the tent which is already full with big ice balls, the tent swinging in the wind dangerously, I try to unlock the tent door from the top, hardly even getting it down while everything around me including myself is shaking. I become soaked into the situation, the wooden pillars of the tent threateningly swinging, I feel my life at risk. 

Within a split second my intuition is yelling at me to immediately get out of the tent which is now swaying heavily from side to side about to rip apart. The same moment I try to reach the stairs uphill side, I find myself crashing on the floor with the wooden stairs down the hill, sliding out the front. A subtle panic is moving throughout my body, my heart is raising, I'm grabbing the grass on the floor, holding on to the soil in the attempt to pull myself up while the hail is mercilessly punching me in my face. My sandals dropping I take all my strength to crawl up the mountain in the tornado begging the universe to not let me slide. Crawling back up to our house on the muddy ground while hail, leaves and wood are hitting my face. The thunder aggressively growling.

Inside the house, I slide down the wooden wall to the floor, confused, shivering, looking for answers of where to go, asking myself if this could be safe. My heart pounding out of my chest while outside the world seems to go down in a hurricane disaster. The thunder is rumbling, the lighting brightening up the sky. The storm raging.

It's not the first time my life is in danger from natural disasters in the mountains. It must be the fourth time or so in the last four years. Three of them here. In my favorite country in the same season in the mountains. I ring everyone from the camp to tell them that I almost died, I need to ask them if I am safe in the house. No one is picking up. I'm still sitting on the floor wet, shivering ignorant of what to do next.

Some minutes later she comes in together with her husband, wet exhausted, panicked, they don't even do so much as ask any questions. They are on their phones trying to reach the emergency line. Totally oblivious in my struggle for survival, I hadn’t realized that everyone else was in life danger as well. The toilets, the house just flew down the mountains. She is whining, crying. Marina, she was on the top floor with the washing machines, the house just slid down the mountain. K is trying to calm her down. We are all alive he says. For now we need to make sure everyone survives, we need to check where everyone is and count the people. Only then I realize the situation we’re in. It wasn't just me everyone is in danger. Still torn between staying and going outside into the tornado, we change our clothes and slowly get going when we have made sure everyone was ok. This is to become a long night.

Organizing how to get all the guests out down to the city to accommodate them in hotels, calling ambulances, running around in the rain with our phone flash lights, it's chaos. Power went off with it the water, the night is completely dark. It's like a catastrophe movie. One of these the world is going to end dystopia. Slowly the thunder is settling down, the rain is becoming lighter. Everyone is just somewhere looking for things, telling their part of story, collecting their belongings or being transported to town. The roads must be cleared from all the fallen trees. Our restaurant yurt a mess, almost everyone saved inside while the boys were holding on to the plastic cover pulling it down in the attempt to stabilize it, nearly flying down themselves like the sanitary house with all the storage, the sinks, showers, washing machines and toilets.

Everyone was saved. No one miraculously got hurt more seriously than a few bruises like myself. My whole body is aching, traumatized. With each step I can feel the pain in my legs. Then in my back and the next day everywhere hard to even localize the origin. It's difficult to walk, I lost energy. My body is drained and aching. My legs bruised and fragile. My head and eye lids heavy from too little sleep and wine until 2 am.

I can't help to clean up. I feel too weak. I feel isolated, calm but I need time to process. Three people are leaving. I cannot right now. I need an extra day to stabilize my body and mind. Even without a toilet, shower water or electricity. My all is refusing to move just now. Every movement of my body slow and mindful. I feel the trauma although I am not seriously injured. My soft heart is. Again and again tears are rising up my eyes when the pictures of me crashing down on the stairs of the tent, sliding down the mountain, the hail brushing in my face, comes flickering in front of my eyes. I'm a survivor again.

I am deeply grateful to the Universe for saving me once again. Thinking about all that could have happened if I had just five minutes before been crashing down in the sauna tent with the burning oven in the fire burning, dying. When the fire that has burned the whole of it is still on until now. 17 hours later. Just like my self constructed campfire is still standing. I can say for now I'm the fire master. A dragon indeed. Feeling the miraculous timing of the universe, saving us all unharmed and happy to be alive. Slowly cleaning up the mess we're left with.