By: Jennifer Richardson Holt
Normally, as I am writing this, I would be at my office at this time of day. And on an average day my daughter would be at school right now. However today, this is not the case. I am sitting here on my couch with my laptop and my daughter is nestled next to me perusing her tablet. It is the middle of the morning. Oddly enough, we both have school and work to which we must mosey but not until later today. Today has a special set of circumstances. Things are so off kilter today because we just had an event that we have the misfortune of experiencing every so often in these parts. Today, we have just come off a hurricane.
But Jennifer, you may be saying to yourself, you don’t live on the coast. And you would be correct. However, I do live close enough to a coast that borders a ridiculously warm body of water that tropical storms are so fond of, that I have on occasion felt some very nasty effects from hurricanes, storms and depressions. The storm that has my daughter and I at home in the middle of a weekday morning was actually a pretty significant hurricane. But the thing is, its course changed a bit more to the east than expected and while there was significant potential for dangerous weather here, our area just managed to get very wet. Now we’re just looking out of the window to see a stiff breeze attempting to dry everything out.
I do remember a few occasions when we weren’t so fortunate to miss the brunt of a storm. I remember almost 30 years ago. I was a child so, living with my parents. We knew of the impending weather and planned to go ride it out at a neighbor’s house as we felt that going there was safer than staying in the house that we lived in. I remember my parents and I, along with multiple members of the family of this widow’s home crowded into a room listening to the horrifying wind outside. She lived in an old home and with every gust it seemed to be breathing. There were creaking and moaning coming from those old walls that made me feel quite certain that we were anything but safe there. I remember the widow’s adult son poking his head out the door in the middle of the night and we could see nothing but a white wall of wind and rain dotted with the occasional debris. There were so many trees being dismantled that the whole house was filled with the fragrance of freshly cut (or ripped as the case may be) wood. It was as sleepless and somewhat traumatizing night as I can remember. There was no power for several days. We drove around looking at damage in different areas that next day while I dozed on and off in the back seat.
Another hurricane hit us a fair number of years later. By this time, I was in grad school and no longer lived at home but, as one does when frightening events occur, I ran back to my parents to cope with the situation. Since we tended to always try to find the safest place possible, this time we went to the church we attended. It was a sturdy brick structure, and we nestled in the innermost room. I remember I happened to be reading a very good book at the time so the goings on outside weren’t as priority of a focus. We did lose power and had to maneuver to a part of the building where we could at least get a bit of the light from outside, (this hurricane had the decency to come during the day instead of the middle of the night like your typical disrespectful bad weather).
While that storm didn’t do nearly the damage of the one I talked about before it was a big deal. And no, I certainly can’t relate to those folks right on the coast who deal with the full strength and power of such a massive storm. I assure you I don’t pretend to suffer the same consequences that they do. But today the storm wasn’t so bad where we were. Today we still have power and get to go to work and school a bit later. I am doing my best to be grateful for a mildly altered day instead of water to the roof and no electricity for weeks. Lord make me grateful that I am not flooded, damaged or blown away. May I be truly grateful for a day I get to sleep just a tad later and go into work at a more leisurely pace than usual. I am safe and well and most assuredly not having to do without while many today cannot say the same. I am blessed beyond measure.
Prose and Possibilities 