From a notebook, written the evening of Tuesday the 31st of July...

The pilot announced that we are in a holding pattern. We're circling the airport now, up above most of the clouds, and it is one of the most incredible scenes I've ever seen. We're flying through lightning, and it lights up the clouds so bright it hurts - and then we circle again to see the full moon, and I swear I have never seen it so bright. The light is actually piercing, near to the sun at noon, so that you can barely look when it is not behind a cloud: so beautiful it is painful. The clouds that should be darkly invisible are lit from it, and shine back silver-white in streamers and soft trailing edges - like angels singing lullabies come to give peaceful dreams. It is like nothing I have ever seen before, even in a picture, but it is the distillation of peace. And we swing round, and the lightning lights everything, and it is so simply and achingly incredible...

For how great is the Lord,
that He should set lights in the sky and command them to shine!
The angels fly with the lightning and sing praise to You;
they dance in the thunder and clap their hands.
I am in awe of Your works;
the loveliness of Your creation steals my breath away.
You laugh, and the air is set ablaze with light.
The heavens give voice; what else can I do?
I can only marvel.
You say, Let there be light!
The earth trembles and the heavens leap forth, eager to do Your bidding.
The storm is Your joy and the thunderstorm Your laughter; I will take joy in Your awesome delight.