Serendipity Words

Living in East Texas can be sunny one minute and storming the next. We go through all weather variations sometimes in the same day and possibly even within the same hour. However, has anyone really thought much about it? Sometimes you can see the storm rolling in and prepare, and other times, you walk by a window and begin to question when everything changed. Sometimes the storms stay for a little bit, others stay for days. The reality is always unknown until we’re in it.  Those same darkened clouds bring the wind. Another warning of the chaos that might ensue. It moves the loose items around, yet although it sounds so cool, it can also be destructive on levels that we fail to recognize. What might get blown around or shifted before the storm even arrives. Yet sometimes, that wind is the storm itself. The rain that follows crashes onto everything; it can cause flooding and leave puddles. Remnants, in a sense, show something was here. Then the lighting. The quick brightness can cause more destruction. The electricity that can cause the power to short and now what was a small individual problem can affect many. Towns and cities become darkened and forced to work together to restore what light was there before. Lastly, it’s the thunder. The remaining roars of the sky make you realize what has happened. The sounds that nobody can trace yet everyone acknowledges. Sometimes you hear it before the destruction almost as if it’s warning you that the world you stand on is about to shake. Have you ever been in your house and heard the thunder crack so loudly that you physically feel your house and body shake from it? Yet some people cover throughout this storm as if waiting for the destruction to pass. Others run into it. They want to feel alive and see what nature can really do. But in reality, do we as humans run from the thunderstorms when they start in our lives. 

The human mind is a complex and creative mechanism. It works filled with thoughts that are constantly processed and categorized. However, oftentimes nobody sees their importance until the thunderstorm that has rolled through that once calm mind has left so much destruction that hope does not seem like a possibility.  You can be perfectly fine one second and then lose your mind the next because you did not see the clouds rolling in. Or maybe you did, but you decided that this storm was the one in which you wanted to stand and play in the rain.  Either way, you chose to ignore the darkness clouding your brain. You see those clouds started with someone’s voice creating your own self-doubt. Someone else told you that you were not good enough. Or that you would never amount to anything. Sometimes it’s not even their word but their actions that proved that. Once that’s implanted into your mind, the wind begins. Your mind then fills with thoughts of failure and remembering all of the times you were let down. But yet you do not want to see the full destruction, so you close the blinds and pretend it’s not there. You can feel it in your soul and hear it howling with every thought. The rain that follows is the tears that silently down your face. They hold every memory and doubt that you can’t bring your mind to address. The pain covers it all as you pray that maybe someone would see or rather that someone wouldn’t. They leave stains on your shirts. Your image is broken into a million pieces as you look at yourself in the mirror, trying to clean up. However, the lighting. The lighting is the part that nobody discusses. The lighting is devastating. The flashing memories of the good no longer matter. The memories of the dates or fun that you can not bring your brain to focus on because the rain is still falling and the wind just won’t let up in your soul. The same lighting has zapped away everything. Your loves and joys are gone. Everyone gathers around just like the town coming together to support one another. This is where you find your people. Your tribe, if you will. But yet, the damage is done, and you don’t want anyone to see. The thunder still rolls long after the storm has left. A sound you can never forget. But what nobody wants to acknowledge is that the storm is temporary. All storms are temporary. The damage however from that storm is what changes your life. How do you rebuild when everything you know has crashed around you and has nothing but devastation. 

So here is the question: if you see and hear the storm coming, do you prepare? Pick up the loose ends, secure what means the most, and hold it closely? Do you gather with the group you know is there to help you rebuild when things get messy? Whether we want to or not, at some point, we will all face a thunderstorm that will shake the very ground we stand on. It’s how we handle the aftershock of it all that plays the most influence.