We were in a tornado the other night. Well, it flew over us, evidently, while we were traveling along I-80 in Nebraska. We had been driving six hours in hard wind and a sometimes-blinding sand storm. I was in no mood for disaster weather. In fact, I was aching for the bed waiting just five miles down the road when the hail hit.
The tornado sirens were blaring when we arrived at our hotel, and the night manager was dashing around the lobby like Beaker from the Muppets. She pointed us toward the “safe room” down the hall. It turned out to be a room without any windows. But it had an exterior wall, so we didn’t feel all that safe.
For about twenty minutes, we hunkered down with parents rocking sleepy children, grandmothers clutching flimsy night clothes, and construction workers checking cyber weather. Finally, the manager came in and announced, “The big funnel cloud has gone over us. Now we just have to watch the smaller storm cell coming behind it.”
My wise husband leaned over and said, “Come on. We’re outta here.”
“What?!”
“We’re leaving. This place is going to be chaos all night, and nobody is going to get any rest even after the weather clears. We’re going on down the road an hour or two.”
He was so right. We drove out of the storm and eventually found a peaceful room and had a good sleep.
It was easy to trust Wendell in that moment, because he and I have gone through a lot of life-storms together. Several times I thought the building might collapse around us. But over and over, we’ve grabbed one another by the hand, ducked the rain, and just gone on down the road a ways.
We’ve found the Peaceful Place every, single time.
Thanks, Kathy! I needed this. J and I are in the midst of the storm right now.
Thanks Kathy. 🙂
“Mel”, actually.
We are on the same road you are sister!
Thanks Kathy! A great reminder.
we cant control what goes on around us, but we can control how we respond to it.
Love and hugs
Kathy,
It was really good seeing you last week! We are thankful! And thanks for writing. 🙂 I’ve also discovered, not just on the highway, but in life, most of the time we are better off to just keep progressing forward THROUGH the storms. The storm usually has one really heavy concentration area that moves slower than we do. If we stop, it only prolongs the process. But if we keep on going forward, the worst of it has passed by before we know it.
When things start getting really bad, it’s easy to shut down, shrink back. But somewhere just the another side to the storm, peace, joy, and rest are awaiting. But we have to take courage and just keep going, if we are ever going to find them.
Peace.
Oh goodness, I love this. “Come on. We’re outta here.”
Love this! Its easier trusting Chris as we go through life-storms together. Love reading how life could be in years to come.
This is so true! Hold hands and keep going!
Thanks, friends. Each one of you has helped us down the road a good ways!