My company wrote us an email and reminded us of all the precautions we should take during this “storm season” and procedures to be followed in case one of these storms causes extensive or catastrophic damage. That got my “pondering” juices flowing……
Storms are predictable. My grandfather worked as a foreman on several ranches in the California San Joaquin Valley. He could smell the rain coming. He could feel that the temperatures were going to drop and he’d be up all night tending to the orchards and keeping the smudge pots going. He could read the signs of the physical elements around him and know what type of day or night it would be.
My grandfather used his powers of prediction and amazed me and my cousins one day. When my cousins would come to stay with us in the summer, my mother always sent us out to play. This particular time it was a very, VERY dry California summer. We needed rain badly and we’d heard my parents and grandparents talking of this off and on for several days. I’m not sure why my grandfather stopped by that afternoon, but he did.
As he was leaving he told us that he could make it rain. Of course, that got our attention. We knew he could not make rain; only God could do that and we told him so. He kept up this back and forth conversation regarding his powers for a bit. He then told us he could show us this old Indian Rain Dance he knew and prove that he could make it rain. So, he did.
We lived in the country and we burned our trash in an old barrel outside. Grandpa walked over to that barrel and started to chant and dance around it. This went on for a little bit and he got us to join him and dance around that old barrel. We had the greatest fun. But inside we knew it was not going to rain but our grandpa was acting silly and we enjoyed every minute of it. Ah, but it did rain. That night there was what I heard my family refer to as a “gully washer”. That next day, the powers of our grandfather were forever stamped in our minds.
Now we are much more sophisticated. Technology has given many people the power to predict the weather patterns and storms. Through these advancements, many lives have been saved and damage minimized or sometimes even avoided because we are aware of the coming storms. Matter of fact, we also know the type of storms coming; there are seasons and patterns.
That brings me to the point of my pondering. It’s the same in our lives. Storms are predictable. Storms have seasons and patterns. Since we know this is true, then we can prepare for and minimize the damage they may bring.
We learn to prepare for storms and problems by the examples around us; parents, family, friends and acquaintances. All play a part in molding our ability to weather the storms of life. The wisdom and knowledge of those around us is a key contributor to how we handle the storm season.
Let me give you a couple examples from my life.
I’ll call this one the “Season of the Young Mother”. When I was a young mother, I thought that having children would totally complete me and I would reach that pinnacle of fulfillment and find the happiness I’d imagined. It wasn’t all I imagined it to be. Hiding in the closet with a flashlight to eat a candy bar and read a book wasn’t what I thought I’d be doing.
I never expected to resent those children. I never expected to be so angry with my husband for not being home during the day and I wanted to leave it all to him when he got home; see how he would deal with it. These things left me feeling like something was terribly wrong with me. I must not be a very good mom. Matter of fact, I must be a really selfish person to resent these little people and the man I had once loved more than anything else.
I did not know that this season of life was like all others; storms occur to help us change. That’s right. This storm was there to help me awaken to the fact that a new dimension of life was opened up. It was no longer about me and my husband and our life together. This season was about focusing on others. My value had just been increased. I needed to adjust my sails so I wouldn’t ship wreck.
I had to adjust to this new season. I had to find others who’d been through this before to help me understand that my life as a mother was the most important job I had. I had to learn to value this role and learn that my frustrations were natural and my feelings were normal. I found others who’d successfully weathered this season and learned to take time for myself when I could. I learned to quit trying to be superwoman, doing it all, to being supermom; setting right and Godly priorities.
How do you prepare for the storms in your life? What have you found that brings the peace and stability to weather the storm? What storm seasons have you weathered?
I’d love to hear from you. You can comment on this post, or you can write me at pvs1960@gmail.com.
My next post will be Storms-Part Three – The Power of the Storm
