Storms and Sunshine

So to know me is to know that I am TERRIFIED (deathly afraid) of storms…I don't know where this fear came from and I know it’s not logical. My fear of storms is as practical as people's fears about spiders, heights, and so on and so forth. When I was younger, during a storm, I used to spend the night in my parents closet during storms. As I got older and went to college it was less feasible (and less cool) to do this. So I suffered in silence and basically went the night without any sleep. Now that I am older and married sleeping in the closet is still not an option, but I have learned how to sleep a little through the storms especially if I don't focus on them (I do this by keeping the covers over my head).

So whenever there is a storm I want to be somewhere safe and sound (preferably a solid structure of some sort). There is nothing that magnifies my terror more than being in a car during a storm (and driving through one personally is a sure way to give me a heart attack). Yesterday there was a wave of storms that came through the south. I didn't even know it was going to storm; it's probably better that way, so I was panicking all day. Anyway the storms decided not to hit my part of Alabama until around the time it was time for me to leave work. This meant I would be in the car on my way home during the time when the storm was suppose to hit the hardest. I was calm at first because most time the meteorologists here exaggerate. But when I got in the car the radio was on and they had been feeding us emails at work, so soon I panicked! Full on panic, irrational panic…thinking of whether I would have to jump in a ditch to avoid an impending tornado. I prayed all the way home…once I was home I was fine. Thankful I had made it in one piece.

When I woke up this morning, the sun was shining so bright and there was not a cloud in the sky. It made me think of Noah and how after everything finally stopped and they were able to get off the boat what a comfort the rainbow must have been. I let my imagination take flight and imagined it was a day like today, not a cloud in the sky, just the sun and God's rainbow.

Days like today always puzzle me, but they also give me something to look forward too after the storm. It makes me wonder how the sky could turn so ugly and produce such a mass order of disarray, yet turn into something so beautiful and awe-inspiring. I guess perhaps if I focused more on the next day I would be less afraid of the current storm. It's much like real life. Everyday brings some challenge to face and overcome some obstacle to get over or around. Focusing on the 'sunny' days can make even the stormy ones a blessing knowing that the best is yet to come.