And life goes on.....

The dawn of yesterday was eye-opening.  The harsh realization that what happened the night before was not just a bad "dream" nightmare, but a real nightmare that did not go away. Our place was strewn with branches and debris so thick you could not see our yard. My beautiful perennial gardens that received so many wonderful compliments on my side and back yards were now covered with big trees that had toppled like matchsticks by the force of the wind.  Gorgeous wave petunias hanging from my front trees were stripped and trees in the back yard (for as far as we could see--which now had increased by about 500 ft.or more) were split, broken or down, broken bones poking through the skin of the earth. It is painful to look at them. In a few weeks they will all be gone.  The broken ones, the down ones, the ones with roots pulled out of the ground and only standing because they are leaning against another broken tree will be cut down, pulled away, or put through industrial chippers.  For weeks we will hear the whir of chain saws, chippers and cherry pickers.  Our landscapes will change, our privacy stripped away, but life will go on.

As we brought out the rakes, saws, and our own little chipper to begin the daunting task of cleaning the yard surrounding our home, we were thrilled to see that our bird feeder stationed where the lawn met the apron of the tree line was standing sturdy and ready to provide our bird (and squirrel) friends with seed.  The birds flocked in like nothing had happened to their world. Their beautiful chirping was uplifting and glorious to hear. Life goes on.

As the day past, sunshine pouring down on us through places that used to be shaded with tree tops, we made lots of observations. With each square foot of yard that was revealed by our cleanup, we could imagine that some day in a few weeks things would be accepted and our yard would be back to relative normal.  Our water breaks brought forward our thankful thoughts that we were not hurt, that our home was still standing (save only a few shingles blown off). We can not imagine what the people in Jarrell, Texas must have felt when a tornado hit that town (several years back) and left nothing in the whole town but miles and miles of wood splinters, the whole town leveled. Theirs was a category 5 with winds over 250 mph.  Ours was declared a category 1 with winds close to 100. Those fine people gathered their hearts together and never gave up hope, rebuilt their city....life goes on.  We can not imagine what people in war-torn countries must go through when they are bombed.  Thank God we can not imagine that.  For the survivors of those bombings....life must go on.  How courageous they must be. Our damage pales in comparison to those thoughts.  Our damage pales in comparison to other people in our town and the surrounding towns who lost roofs, houses, animals.  We just have a very messy yard huge trees to clean up.  Others in the abutting neighborhood who were hit harder than us begin their cleanup and are thankful, as we are, that no one was hurt.

On the bright side, (no pun intended) our small vegetable garden is miraculously still standing and will get as much sunshine as it needs.....nothing blocking the sun now!

Last night, after raking, dragging, and chipping away at the debris from 8 AM to 7 PM, we ached from the tops of our heads to the tips of our toes.  But as the hot comforting water sprayed down our backs in the shower it washed away the fright of the tornado, the pain of the clean up, and helped massage in the realization of the changes in our home/lot that happened in the blink of an eye.  Mother Nature brought a huge change, but once again she helped us realize what is really important....that we still have each other, that we can accept change.....that life goes on.

We were told by a neighbor coming home in the storm and stopping so the doors of  her car were not blown out....that she looked up and saw the funnel right behind our house.  That thought still scares me and I wonder and give thanks to God that it seemingly got the trees, but pulled up before it got our home.

If you love someone, don't miss the chance today to tell them so.