On a Sunday evening, I sat by the window of a pub on the fifth floor and stared at the sky as it transformed over the course of three hours. It turned from patches of vibrant pink and blue into a dark and gloomy gray. Clouds gathered to signal the coming of rains that everyone had been hoping for for weeks. And most obvious of all, lightning flashed across the sky. They weren't overpowering flashes; simply bright enough to be unavoidable. Enough to announce its presence politely but firmly, and nothing more. The quiet confidence of a thing that knows that everyone knows that it has arrived.

My friends and I heeded the warning. We packed up and headed home. And for a while during our journey, the skies were kind to us and it only drizzled. Everyone was relieved that it was finally raining; perhaps that would help reduce the levels of humidity that we had been suffering for the last few weeks. But no, it only drizzled for a couple of hours, nothing else.

I got home, I ate dinner with my mother, washed up and shut the house down, and settled into my armchair for a movie. And of course, the heavens opened up. It rained...and then some. But the surprise was that it wasn't just the first rains of the summer; it was a thunderstorm. It was as unexpected as they come. The lightning turned angry and unavoidable, like the gods had found the flash button on a new camera and were insisting on trying it out with every photograph. The thunder was deafening; so loud that you couldn't sleep. Just when you were beginning to doze off, came a sound that felt like a slap in your face to jolt you awake.

I woke up the next morning, looked around and saw the aftermath. And it didn't frighten me. It reaffirmed my faith as a pagan.

This is what I believe in: the power of the soil, the water, the wind, the sun, the moon. When I was born, the religion I inherited was Islam. But as an adult, this is my true faith: my belief in the forces of nature. It is the only thing that makes sense to me. It is the only faith that rings true. I can see their power all around me. I can see the damage we do every day, and I mean all of us. I could sense their fury in the scorching heat that came too early,  their anger burning down on us. I could sense their wrath during the thunderstorm, their retaliation. I can sense the exhaustion they feel, the resigned sorrow. And I can feel them gathering their fading strength, their rampant anger, to punish us one final time so they can save themselves. I fear that inevitable day, but all the same, I know we deserve it.