An Offering Of Hope

"As I gazed through the window of what was once my warm familiar kitchen, I knew that all was not lost."

The storm had claimed so much when the tempestuous EF-5 tornado raged through the neighborhood. I can still hear that horrible, frightening sound in my head. The constant rumble and low roar like a waterfall of whooshing air. The most prominent smell of vegetation combined with the stink of natural gas. I watched as the big, greenish-grey column of twisting air descended down without mercy or leniency.

I pressed myself in the corner covering my ears as flying debris shattered windows and pounded away at the exterior walls. Air rushed in around me through the busted windows, filling the entire house with pressure like a balloon being inflated. I could feel the walls around me breathing.

In less than ten minutes it was over. There was an unusual calm and peace after the tornado passed. The air was fresh and clean yet eerie and unearthly. It was a natural mystery, unlike anything that I had ever experienced before.

As I conscientiously wandered outside I could hear the sirens wailing and howling in the distance. My heart ached and bled as I took in the total destruction that was surrounding me. It was as if I had entered a portal to a strange, unaccustomed land. A place that was dreadful and fearsome yet melancholic and sorrowful.

I paced back inside of my house, hoping that I would wake up and find that it was all just a horrible nightmare. My inviting and hospitable home would be intact and welcoming just as it had always been for me. The misfortune and tragedy were still there waiting for me like a freak monstrosity.

The scent of a warm pear cobbler was still supernaturally suspended in the air. Gratitude and thankfulness leaked from my eyes in the form of salty tears as I gazed through the window of what was once my warm familiar kitchen, I knew that all was not lost. Still standing proud and untouched was the pear tree that I had planted with my grandmother so many years ago. A single perfect pear rested on the windowsill as if it were an offering of hope and sanguinity.

I would survive and just like the invincible pear tree, I too would continue to flourish and prosper. The storm may have taken almost everything that was valuable in a material sense but it couldn't take away the value of optimism and hopefulness.

Life moves forward... Even when time stops and you wish that the world would stop with it. You'll soon find yourself moving forward eventually, but you do that in your own time, in your own way.

Through the storm, I have learned that the purpose of life is to live, deeply. You can't control most things, but you can savor what's right in front of you. Life is worth living. There's still so much to experience, so many things to learn about, so much more you can do, give, enjoy and dream about.

Even in the chaos and struggle, you always have choices. You get to choose how you see the world, what you focus on, and how you respond. You have a choice to decide whether or not what happened was wrong or was it something that happened with purpose, something that's now a part of your life. You can now learn from it and grow with it. You get the comfort that you need when it's dark outside from within your own self.

The good news is that there's still beauty within everything that the sun touches if you choose to see it.