The sun sets on another day…and boy did it set…
There is an old adage about the calm before the storm and the measured power of the storm being greater from the calm. So I had heard, and heard for real.
When I was young living in Indianapolis Indiana my little sister and I were alone a lot. When I say a lot it is more than most people can easily comprehend. As children we were alone more than people were around and it has given both of is a unique view of life, perhaps from different sides as I was older, but still unique. While we were in the south part of the city (we moved usually once per year, sometimes more) we got accustomed to hearing tornado sirens. Usually it was a benign threat, a little storm, and sometimes nothing at all. This one time (not at band camp) my sister and I heard the sirens and like most younger kids with great common sense we did the only logical thing, we went outside to see what was up.
The silence outside was almost eerie. It was neither warm nor cold and the sun shone brightly towards the north. We were beginning to laugh when we swung our gazes almost in unison to the southwest and beheld the darkest ugliest weirdest clouds either of us had seen to date. At the time I was 11, my sister almost 7 and for the first time we saw a menacing storm that truly could be worthy of the sirens. The sirens raged in the pure silence and we watched in awe as the clouds slowly started moving. There was an almost surreal glow to the sky, not dark, nor light, nor of a color you could easily describe. We watched as the clouds slowly began to congeal and lower and form a wide twisting mass. Still we watched, and it was amazing as the stillness in the air was almost oppressive. The cloud continued to descend and it was then that all hell broke loose.
With force beyond belief the wind blew, it grasped and clutched at us as my sister and I ran into the small brick one story on a slab. As we closed the screen it was ripped from my hands momentarily and I grabbed it and pulled it shut. In those days we were told to open the windows, which we did as rain pounded on us from the heavens or perhaps the depths of hell. I cannot easily describe the sounds of a million drops of rain hitting the house at once, mixed with hail and for all I know the lamentations of the past and future. We crouched in the hall as the wind wailed monstrously, taking both our confidence and the power in the house with a giant clap of thunder and bolt of lightning that were synchronized by some unearthly cue system. The house got colder as the wind whipped through the open windows and we heard the rain hit the floors in the other room in the darkness.
For a moment, though young, I considered my mortality. I thought of my grandparents, my friends, my sister, all the things I knew that could be taken away from me in moments. I held my sister, trying to protect her but knowing inside, if this were to be the time, I may not have the power, and then, moments later, it stopped. There was nothing.I considered the possibility that it was truly over, and I mean over, but set that thought aside as my sister and I got up, went to the door, and looked out to see the clouds running from us, and the silence was there again.
Yes, I am on a roll tonight but as I just weathered another storm I can only say there is also a calm after the storm. In the darkest of moments there can always be an end, which also could be a beginning. The beginning of an awesome eve, a wonderful day, or a majestic night. The picture above is just after a hail pounding cannot see more than an inch, fiery amazing storm only a few feet from my front door.
In life we also face similar. Sometimes the most terrifying storms in our lives give way to the peace we deserve. The pain of an illness, the unending agony of heartache, the finality of someone passing, the turmoil of emotional distress. These things may seem like that descending black cloud, but in the end, there is a calm we can hold onto, and become a part of as we experience the closure of the storm, and the peace that may follow. So take heed and never give up, nor give in to the darkness, be in your hallway, holding on, and thinking of the things that are important to you.
So as the sun sets on another day, do not fear the night, the storm, or fear anything at all, instead hold tight for the calm that will come, and overcome all the obstacles in your life to build something new and exciting, no matter what.
Sleep sweet, love furiously, and live every moment in life while you outrun the storm, it is your day, now go live it…
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