Storms

Sleep was elusive last night.

I lay in the bed while the wind howled around the Little Yellow House on the Hill.

Tornado watch till 2am the weatherman said....

I looked at the clock: 10:00p, 11:00p, midnight.

I tossed and turned.

Something kept bumping down the hall. Noises that were strange filled my ears.

2:00a, - Tornado watch pushed back to noon.

3:00a.

With the windows open the wind pushed back and forth on my son's closed bedroom door, making silent thumps. I got up to close his window.

4:00a - thunder and lightening. More wind.

I checked my iPad all night to make sure there wasn't a tornado headed our way. I tried to figure out a plan to reach the kids should we have to run to safety downstairs.

I thought about the families here that have already lost so much.

I wondered if those 80 ft. Carolina Pines would hold to the ground. Wondered if they would fall through the house with ease.

Yes, fear spun the wheels of my mind and sleep was elusive.

It reminded me of the time 30-years ago as I stood in our enclosed porch in my pajama's. We lived on 19th St. and the desert monsoons were making their way over the mountains. I watched a very tall, skinny, Palm Tree get hit by lightening and go up in flames.

Yesterday on our way to co-op lightening hit a gigantic hard wood tree and a limb of the tree fell to the street below, rendering the road blocked. This limb was so large it could have easily covered a car or two. We were there just seconds before it happened.

ZAP!! Towers of strength reduced to kindling.

I thought of those summers in Texas when the tornado sirens would sound and we'd snatch the kid's bodies from the bed and sit in the bathroom till the storm was over.

Why do these storms seem to happen in the dark of night?

All these scenes moved around with the wind and became bigger than life in my mind.

I prayed and tossed and tried to close my eyes.

I was never so glad for daylight.