A crowd of us gather after the storm to check in, care for, and --oddly--crack jokes to lighten the mood. My daughters climb up to the attic and touch the tree.
It seems amazing: a tree shot straight through the house.
Nobody was hurt. In fact, we begin to count all the ways this could be worse. There's this strange yet obvious spirit of gratitude for what wasn't lost.
I think about this attitude all day and night. I want to cultivate the kind of thankfulness that remembers what is still here.
Perhaps that's what storms do best.
5 comments:
You scared me, girl!
Whoa.
Wow! And Amen! I can even "hear" gratitude in your "voice" when I read this, Heather. And Amen!!! Week before last one was a storm of sorts for us. Every day, it seems, brought one more "crisis". One morning, after I intersected my son and his wife between home and Ft.Myers so they could give me the baby while they took 2yo Addisyn (who'd just two days earlier had a cast applied to her hand/arm for a broken finger) to infection control at the hospital after she was diagnosed with MRSA, I came home and made a quick list of all the favors - gifts - God had given me that morning alone, and my exhaustion and worry gave way to energy and hope. God is so good to us.
I'm so grateful that tree shot through your attic and not your living room or kitchen or bedroom where you and your family may have been. Thank you, God, for keeping Heather and her family safe. Increase their joy and thankfulness and make them to shine for you as they walk through these days of home repairs and communicate with insurance adjusters and those gifted with the skills to make those repairs.
Hello! I love your gratitude attitude and that list of God's mercies!!
Two weeks ago, after multiple one after another crises, I stopped to remind myself "God's got this." So glad your neighbors are safe and what was damaged can be fixed.
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