Hurricanes. Coming from the west coast with fires and earthquakes, one really doesn’t have time to prepare. You can have a plan in place, but you have little to no notice. On the east coast, we have learned the craziness of hurricanes and hurricane season. We learned that although you are warned for days, sometimes a week, a hurricane, goes where it wants to, and will get there when it wants to.
Our personal encounter with ‘hurricanes’ began when we got a little place about a mile from the beach, for weekend ‘get-a-ways’. We realized that a hurricane was growing bigger and headed toward or little place near the beach, so we headed down to beach to prep our home for the approaching hurricane.
We pulled the numbered sheets of plywood and bolts from the attic and tried to figure out the ‘system’ the previous owner used. After we boarded up the windows, we gathered up the rocking chairs, the patio furniture, bar-b-que, flagpole, and fire pit. All that was left was the four lanterns that we had hung around the porch. My husband was tired, and ready to be done with the prep in the 98 degree weather. He didn’t want to take the time to grab a ladder, instead he climbed on the three-inch wide railing that was about five feet high and surrounded the porch and began to pull down the lanterns one by one. As he reached for the second lantern, he began to lose his balance. He dropped his arm and reached for the corner post as his weight carried him along the banister. As he grabbed the post, he completely lost his balance, and disappeared into the five-foot bushes surrounding the porch. I looked over the rail, to see his feet over his head. Please note that I did ask him if he was okay before I laughed until I cried. He was fine, he whacked his arm as he broke some branches on his way down, knocked a huge hole in the bushes, surprised both of us, and crush the small palm that was growing outside the bushes. Once I went around the porch and down to him, we both laughed as we tried to pull him out of the bushes and off the sago palm.
A few days later we learned everything was great at the beach, that we only got hit high winds, and the eye of the storm stayed out to sea.
Recalling the way my husband tip-toed uncontrollably down the railing still makes me giggle, it made me think about how we there are times that we find ourselves out of control, our feet (or our mind) start moving faster than our body, losing our balance, and we end up laying on a sago palm, lost in the bushes.
“Be well balanced and always alert, because your enemy, the devil, roams around incessantly, like a roaring lion looking for its prey to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
