Weather Gods

Approximation of "fluffstone"

The Church of No Preference just loves to have outdoor sermons, weather permitting. Enjoying nature, that was probably created by a God, on a mid-70s, windless. slightly cloudy day in the late morning is heavenly.

These assemblies can turn out to have some unexpected moments. For instance, the time a bunch of squirrels came swooping through our circle and did some type of mating ritual in front of the whole audience. Or when the tree branch dropped on the laps of half the front row, thank God there were no serious injuries. Unless you count Rita, who had a bad reflex action repeatedly throughout the day where her left leg would kick out suddenly and then trip the person walking past her.

The strangest outdoor religious get together that I will always remember was from two years ago just about this time of year. We had invited a drum circle group to perform some of our hip hymns partnered with the choir, it was beautiful and swinging. Soon people began to stand and dance with joy.

About 7 or 8 people were dancing in coordination to the music when suddenly a wind started. In seconds it began to blow harder. Everyone except the music and dancers became distracted by the rising weather. I remember thinking, "Hey, I checked the weather using several sources, it's suppose to be no wind, clear skies."

The music and the dancers seemed to be in a daze as they continued on. Just then, it began to hail, but it wasn't like real hail. It came down slowly, about the size of a persons foot, and didn't have the hardness or weight of hailstones. The objects were sort of like several wadded up dryer sheets.

I noticed that the dancers changed dances and right then those "fluffstones" finished falling. How strange?! The wind began swirling in a circle, somewhat strong, which caused those fluffstones to sweep all around us! Slowly at first and picking up speed. Then it began to lightly rain. The rain had a slighly oily feel, but not unpleasant. Then the rain was real rain. It never fell hard, lightly misting all of us as the fluffstones continued to whirl around. Surreal, I kept thinking.

And then the music suddenly finished. The dancers slowed then sort of swayed. The fluffstones whirled around then up and away to the north as the rain stopped as well. And looking up, there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

How weird at how quick it was over when the music stopped. Everyone began to settled down, sit and talk about what happened. It seemed like a miracle or a sign. All kinds of amazing ideas about what had just occured, but we found out later what was going on. The drums and choir started a new song, and the dancers reacted with joy again. And then the wind started blowing, then harder, then we realized that the dancers and music was combining into a weather dance.

The fluffstones and rain returned. We played in the fluffstones a number of times as the "dance of the weird weather" was performed. We think we had a weather God, or some sort of dance power. Anyway, we never do the Dance of the Weird Weather anymore. That particular drum group wouldn't play our outdoor religious gig again. They feared the fluffstones. We've been taking collections to pay a higher performance fee in order to get them to return. Please send your donations to the e-mail address.

We want to do the fluffstones again, it was miraculous. It gave us a sweet feel.