My youngest child can spot a storm that is still hours away. I’m not sure how, but the child can look up into a virtually cloudless sky and accurately predict a disturbance that trained weather spotters would miss. I wish I had her intuition.

I recently found myself caught in a few storms, both in the natural world and in life, in general. Some of these storms
I could see on the horizon and I was appropriately prepared. I had no clue that others were coming and I was completely caught off guard. No umbrella, no jacket, no rainy day fund. Just me against the elements.

What do you do when a storm sneaks up on you? It’s one thing to get caught in the rain. It’s a different thing when the storm is multi-faceted and is disturbing each of your senses: blinded by lightening, deafened by thunder, filling your nose, not with the fresh scent of rain, but with the smell of decaying things the storm has already destroyed, the bitter taste of defeat, and the tangible feeling of certain failure. What do you do when the storm is seemingly hitting you on every possible front?

There are some storms I seem to plow through. My desire to get from one place to the next propels me forward. But there are some storms too scary for that. There are some storms so vast thàt escape seems impossible, and all you can do is wait them out.

As you navigate the storms in your own life, I pray you find a place of safety. It matters not whether it’s a physical structure or an idea that gives you peace. The only thing that matters to me is that you survive the storm, and have a friend or two to help you in the aftermath.

VIVA PUERTO RICO!

Mama Radford