My area got the remnants of Hurricane Ida the other week. I ended my day with tornado warnings, news of several touching down just a few miles from where I live, and lots of time in my basement. Everything was fine and we were blessed not to have even lost power.
The next morning, the weather was so beautiful that if there hadn’t been down limbs and debris everywhere, you never would have known there was a storm just a few hours prior.
As I was standing outside the morning after the storm, feeling the sun on my face before my day began, I started thinking about all of the storms we weather.
As is often the case, on the day the weather was stormy, so was my mood. I found myself contemplating lots of deeper life questions, as apparently happens in middle age. I was emotional and feeling all of the internal storms.
And then the next morning I woke up feeling completely different. Feeling aligned, connected and present. The emotional storm had passed as well.
The folks who experienced the tornadoes said that the whole event lasted about 3-5 minutes. I bet those 3-5 minutes felt like they’d never end; and yet by the time those folks were being interviewed on the local news the sun was shining.
Interesting how our internal storms work the same way. They can come on strong, feel like they’ll never end and then suddenly they dissipate.
Our work is to weather them. Thankfully, the damage is generally not as severe as the actual tornadoes that touched down in my area, but sometimes it is. Our work is still to weather them.
The tornado passed. So did my internal storm. There was no intervention required. You just sit in your basement and wait for it to pass.
