Monday, November 1, 2010

Love is a Tornado

This morning, my daughter hands me a little card that says her love for me is like a tornado.  She drew a picture of a tornado and wrote, "It's like this." 

I turn to her and say, "You mean it's powerful and destructive?"

She smiles and pretends she's punching me.  She tries to explain the comparison:  "It gets stronger each day like a tornado gets stronger with each spin." 

Her tornado is a giant mess of scribble that looks terrifying.  

Love is a tornado? 

That can't be right.   

My husband adds at breakfast that a tornado is like love because you "never know where it's coming from." It can take you by surprise (like how I met him when I least expected it).  

I look at this little family.  I think of the kind of love that breaks the heart and repairs it simultaneously.  I think of the terrifying surrender of it, the giant mess of living lives intertwined. I think of the powerful destruction that love's wake leaves on the landscape of a heart.  It's a tornado that rips you apart.

But it's the kind of devastation you endure because there's no other way to have it.  It's the most beautiful storm you'll ever experience. 

I hug my children--these little tornadoes in my heart--and think about the kind of love I want in my life.  Let it be giant and powerful.  Let it get stronger each day. 

Let it destroy what in me needs to be leveled and remake a pure landscape.  


(Photo:  Public Domain. Credit: OAR/ERL/National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) via [pingnews])

6 comments:

JoAnn Foley-DeFiore said...

this is HANDS DOWN one of my faves!!!
what a powerful image to hold onto and contemplate fully.

RtsSearchr said...

Wow! Your daughter has quite the poetic soul, hasn't she?!

My daughter (age 14) is doing NaNoWriMo this month. It wasn't that long ago that she made me cards, too. I am happy to have read your post today...it gives me something to hold onto for the next month, until my girl surfaces from under the 50,000 words she has to write!

Julie said...

Heather - your blog is one I've grown to read daily (even when time is short.) I so enjoy what you share. Thank you.

Mspong said...

I agree, it has become a daily must read. :) Thanks so much for writing!

Heather said...

You have an insightful daughter! What a wonderful analogy, an image of love I won't soon forget. I found you via one of your comments on Motherlode the other day. I have enjoyed reading.

sallie kate said...

The greatest example is when Love came down from heaven in the form of a Man, willing to endure insults and shame to lay down His life for us. This Love trumped evil forever and made a Way for me to find Life.
The perfect storm, you're right.