JUST ANOTHER STORM

Back on September 11th of last year and then again on June 12th of this year I wrote about the two trees that sit in my front lawn. Ironically in the one on June 11th of this year I talked about how the one tree had survived a lot of trauma in it's time but that it was still standing tall. I also made mention that maybe one day a storm would come along and completely destroy the tree. Well, a couple of days ago another storm rolled through. One moment I was talking on the phone with an old friend and the next minute the storm raged quickly down the street I live on. The winds, according to our local weather people, were between 60 and 70 miles per hour. The phone went dead, the lights and all the power went completely out, and the storm kept on raging. I heard a loud thump and when I opened the front door I saw a large part of my tree lying in the front ditch. As I walked out on the front porch the wind was blowing so hard I was having trouble just standing still. I watched for as long as I could until the rain began to fall so hard I was quickly getting drenched. I went back inside and stood by the window(yeah, I know you ain't supposed to stand by a window during a storm but I ain't the smartest person on earth) watching the wind and rain remain a torrent. The storm passed fairly quickly and then again, things were calm as could be. Upon inspection of my beloved tree I had all kinds of thoughts running through my mind. But the one that said the most to me was that God I love this tree and if I have to cut it completely down then it has endured it's last storm. About half of the tree is now lying on the ground and I'm not in too big a hurry to chop it up throw it away. If I lived out in the country somewhere instead of a subdivision I may just let it stay in the yard and decompose naturally. But I know I'm gonna have to get it removed soon. I have learned so many lessons about life just by loving and listening to this tree since the year of 2006. Now if I do have to cut this one down I will still have one left and I will wait and see what kind of lessons it will teach me. I would just like to remind everyone of how quickly the things and most importantly the people we love can be taken from us in a split second. We all know that, but yet it seems we continue to take for granted those we love. We continue to argue, disrespect, and at times even hate our brothers and our sisters, our husbands and wives, our friends and so on. Personally I have seen so many people I love just quickly disappear from my life for one reason or the other. So I tell myself often to never take for granted anything I love because like my storm damaged tree it can be there one moment and gone the next. And just in case I haven't told you lately that I love you, then I say it now. May your life be blessed with lots of love, inner peace, and joy! Be good to yourselves and even better to others if you can.