Burkburnett, Texas
7:14 p.m.
The sky is gray and dark storm clouds are all around us. About every 5 minutes, a new weather warning comes across the bottom of the TV screen. Mike put both of the cars under the carport in case hail should accompany one of the approaching storms. We aren't really scared or nervous. Both of us have seen stormy weather many times in our lives and we know that there is nothing we can do to stop it.
"Riding the storm out..." is more than just a line in an R. E. O. Speedwagon song. Just like back home in Kansas, it's a way of life here in north central Texas.
During the two years that I lived in Colorado when Mike and I were first married, I would watch the weather reports for my old home in Kansas especially during the spring and summer months. I'd see that Reno County would be under a severe thunderstorm or even a tornado warning and I'd pray that my family and friends back there would be safe. In the mountains we had no fear of such storms and to be honest, I'd kind of forgotten about having to worry over them. We had things like avalanches and mudslides to be anxious about instead. I guess it was a trade off of sorts and I'm glad that I never had to fear any of them.
My students back in Olathe, Colorado used to ask me all the time what it was like to live in Tornado Alley. My fourth graders were particularly interested in what it was like to have to do tornado drills in school. When I tried to explain how that kind of drill would be taken care of, they all had looks of wide eyed amazement upon their faces. It was just hard for them to fathom a storm that packs the strong winds that a good old Kansas tornado does. I'm glad that they never had to experience one and I'm sure they were too.
The sky looked weird about 20 minutes ago. Mike noticed it first and then I did as well. The clouds had a strange formation that I'd never seen before. The artwork of nature is always changing, providing us with a new backdrop this evening. I stared at it for quite a while before taking this picture.
Life is filled with storms, whether you live smack dab in the middle of Tornado Alley or anywhere else for that matter. Storms don't always have to be of the "weather kind" either and if you have been through those kinds of storms like I have, you will understand exactly what I mean. Generally speaking, we always make it through them, even though sometimes it seems like there's no possible way that we can.
People thought we were crazy to leave the beauty of the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado and come here to the plains of Texas. Tornadoes were one of the things that were most mentioned to us. Yet we came any ways and are glad that we did. It took a leap of faith, a giant one at that, for us to give up the life that we had there and begin a new one here. No matter what was waiting for us, tornadoes included, we were going forth in faith that everything would be ok. I believe that is what I like most about faith and I'm sure you will find it somewhere in "the Good Book". Believing in that which you cannot even see, requires strength and courage, and a whole lot of it.
One way or another, Mike and I found it.
Through this storm or any other, we follow the same plan that we left Montrose, Colorado with and the plan is this.
We hold hands and stick together.
It's the only way.
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