Storms!....Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Typhoons

First the best news of the year.  No Cancer!!!  I had a benign tumor removed nearly 2 weeks ago.   I take heart in this great news and Praise God for his tender and kind mercies.

O! how I love a good storm.  Growing up in the heartland, rain, sleet, snow, hail, and of course, gorgeous sunsets 'across the fruited plain', made up the tapestry of daily life and continue to this day.  Then as now,  there were those, thankfully, rare events - tornadoes. 
David and I were talking about storms this morning.  A friend of theirs from Singapore was driving through southern Tennessee, when a sudden rain squall came up; driving horizontal rains so fiercely, his wife couldn't see him from inside of the station.  They did see the storm, but were far enough ahead, they remained out of harms way, however, he was soaked through. 
I told David some stories when an F5 tornado hit Jackson, TN in the fall of 1999.  South Jackson was just annihilated.  Overturned semi tracker trucks, stores and homes leveled; stories of survival were told with the state of shock etched into their faces and several people lost their lives as well. 
When I was in the 5th grade, eating a homemade hamburger, the skies were turning that very strange color of green.  My dad stepped outside and I went with him.  (if other members of the family were outside with dad, please tell me, as this is what I remember).  My dad counted off 8 'tails' of tornadoes, coming our way over I-35; east to west.  My dad pulled the car in the detached garage.  We went to the basement and listened as those winds screamed.  A huge explosion tore through the noise of the storm.  I remember my mom saying, in that detached, calm (shocked) manner, 'well, there went the house'.  Suddenly, it was over.  I believe there was a little light rain but the skies were clearing.  Our barn and a chicken house were leveled....the garage? The walls had collapsed and the roof was setting at an odd angle damaging the car beyond repair. If these tornadoes had hit the ground, there would have been nothing left of our little community. 
The house was not gone.  The explosion was from a closed window in the den, located in the front of the house - glass was found all over the house.  One post was knocked loose on the front porch.  We were alive, we would clean up our property and our lives would go on.  Though it would seem these particular storms are very frequent, they aren't.  But they are incredible in their power. Sparing one building and destroying another, driving straw into telephone poles and leaving a pan of cookies untouched,  making these storms all the more memorable. 
Like physical storms, there are storms of enormous magnitude in our personal lives. Waking to a perfectly 'normal' day and that night, way past normal bedtime, we are bathing in our tears, shivering at the thoughts racing furiously across what is left of my mind. Oh, that brain? It has turned to mush.  How? When? Where? Why? WHY????  Upon waking (if there was sleep at all) there is that moment of calm.  However from the look of dry, bloodshot eyes - there is an announcement in the brain - THIS is reality. 
Where do I go? Who do I talk to? How can I explain this? How do I escape? I can't.  I cannot.  I look around and everything looks the same and yet everything is changed. I am angry, sad and paralyzed. Food is not important, clothes - whatever I wore yesterday would be fine for the day ahead. I'm freezing and yet the day is very warm.
Storms, both physical and emotional, bring shock and destruction.  There is unleashed fury; a tornado, a hurricane or some other storm, destroying property or at least throwing power out for days on end.  On the emotional side there is bad news, difficulties that don't fall into a category; exploding, destroying everything, decisions made, leave us as "a cork in a storm on the sea".  And like those harsh winds and relentless and blinding horizontal rains, this storm reshapes whatever it strikes. Not unlike ocean storms, slamming into coastal areas, etching their calling cards into rocks and shorelines, we do not know the toll from this storm.  How far reaching is the damage it will do? Who has it affected?  Is there anything salvageable? 
We still have days of looking out the window; seeing calm skies, but after being slammed by this storm, we still are on the lookout for those blustery, angry clouds on the horizon.  This is a private storm.  Gratefully  this song stays in my heart as I again, reach out and keep a firm grip on hope.
love kathryn

Will your anchor hold in the storms of life,
When the clouds unfold their wings of strife?
When the strong tides lift and the cables strain,
Will your anchor drift, or firm remain?

It is safely moored, ’twill the storm withstand,
For ’tis well secured by the Savior’s hand;
And the cables, passed from His heart to mine,
Can defy that blast, thro’ strength divine.

It will surely hold in the Straits of Fear—
When the breakers have told that the reef is near;
Though the tempest rave and the wild winds blow,
Not an angry wave shall our bark o’erflow.

When our eyes behold through the gath’ring night
The city of gold, our harbor bright,
We shall anchor fast by the heav’nly shore,
With the storms all past forever more.

We have an anchor that keeps the soul
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,
Fastened to the Rock which cannot move,
Grounded firm and deep in the Savior’s love.