What a wild, blustery, rainy day in the Pacific Northwest. Wowser. I woke up to gray clouds and drizzle. That's nothing new. Then, around ten a.m., right when I was changing my sheets and listening to the news on the radio, the radio became silent. The room darkened. Wouldn't you know it, the power had gone off. Oh well, I might as well take my shower now instead of later. Right. When the power goes out around here, we all lose our water supply too. If I had been aware of the storm's onset, I would have filled some containers with water. But no, I was caught off guard. That was not particularly good. So, what do I do now?
Well, last night I decided to get myself organized, so I made my to-do-list. I had already washed my bedding and gotten the bed remade. I was going to clean the bathrooms and mop the floors. I couldn't do that because I had no water available. I was going to scrub down my kitchen counters and mop that floor. No on that one too. I was going to clean out my fridge and freezer. Since I didn't know how long the power would be out, I certainly didn't want to keep the refrigerator doors open any longer than necessary. My last power outage lasted several days.
About the only thing I could do was read, or so I thought at first. I had a problem though. The sky was almost black. That meant it was too dark inside to read, so I got a blanket and some pillows, propped myself up in the corner of my couch, and watched the storm rage. At one point it was raining so hard that the water was pouring over the sides of the gutters making them look like Niagara Falls. I looked at the downspouts to see of they were clogged. They weren't. They looked like fire hoses opened full force. Water, water everywhere. I loved it.
The trees were going wild. The limbs of the spruce didn't know which way to go, so they went every direction at once. The magnolia tree which still had at least half its leaves last night, soon was stripped practically bare. I even had leaves on my porch that came from who-knows-where. They were from no tree in my yard.
As I watched the storm rage I kept wondering if I was sitting in a safe place. Some of my trees could decided to come toppling down. After all, we have had ten inches of rain so far this month. As I thought of my surrounding trees, I decided that each one could potentially hit the house. It all depended which direction any 50 mph gust was coming from. I had no control over any of that, so I kept enjoying the storm.
Finally, after almost two hours, it had become light enough to read. I fixed myself a plate of crackers as well as some craisins, grabbed myself a bottle of water, got my book, and settled in to read the afternoon away. Wouldn't you know it, I had finished my third page when the lights came on, the furnace started, and the radio began playing.
Did I clean the bathrooms? No. Did I clean my kitchen? No. Instead I spent most of the afternoon on my laptop checking out a local scanner website that has police and fire reports. Power was lost in most of the county. Trucks were blown over, roads, homes, and fields flooded, and culverts caved in. All in all, our area had three inches of water in a two hour period. It was pretty impressive.
A storm like this was hard to watch a couple years ago because the helplessness of the trees, the violence of the wind and rain, and the deafening noise all echoed my own feelings. But this storm, this time, was fun to watch. I felt safe. I felt warm and secure, I felt anchored. The difference? The Lord's healing. I can truly rejoice tonight about weathering an awesome storm without experiencing it at a gut-wrenching, pain inducing level. God is so good.
Have a God evening. I know I will.
Jan
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