Live Everyday with Intention!
Hey y’all! So here is a thing we’re gonna talk about today!
It has been almost four days since Dorian safely passed our coastline and town and I head to the beach for my beautiful beginnings, grateful in every way to have been spared another storm.
Some storms have been worse for our family then others.
I am reminded of Charley in 2004.
The irony, Charley wasn’t supposed to do much. It was supposed to slow down as it crossed the state. I hadn’t even payed attention because by the time it was to get to us, it was supposed to be a much smaller storm.
Guess what? It didn’t. In fact it sped up and got bigger, and by the time it reached our side of the state it was fierce!
I recall the first hour laying in bed, reading and somewhat listening to the Weather Channel in the background, thinking to myself that what I was hearing outside and what they were telling me didn’t match.
By the second hour, it was clearly getting much worse, and I realized we had a way bigger storm on our hands then what had been anticipated. What started as a cozy evening in bed waiting to sit out a passing storm quickly turned to actual fear.
Charley began to really show it’s full force when the first tree came down. It proceeded to take out every beautiful old rambling oak tree from our yard and in the neighboring yards too. As trees fell around our house shaking the ground and foundation with each thundering BOOM and winds howling throughout the night, Abby and I hid in our center bathroom by the glow of a flashlight. The wind sounded like a haunted train barreling down on our house and I was sure it was going to either rip the roof off our home or cause a tree fall on it.
Between weather forecasters and Mother Nature, Mother Nature wins every time. I had never been scared of a hurricane in my life but Charley showed me differently.
It wasn’t until daybreak when we could survey the damage that we saw what Charley had really done.
Much of our personal belongings and parts of our home were destroyed. We went without power for three weeks. Our carport was smashed, large portions of our roof was blown off, a hole the size of a bucket formed in our ceiling and water poured into the back of our kitchen area, an entire back porch aluminum roof blew away, ripped right from the supports, Abby’s two story wooden playhouse that I had hand painted was obliterated by a tree and a 14×14 shed structure with all its contents (including my new dishwasher we had just bought but not yet installed) smashed beyond recognition by yet another tree. We had three full sized oak trees down, and one neighboring tree that fell into our yard.
However crushed I was, I was also grateful! I had friends who had trees land on their homes and cut right through them.
Crazy part to this, no sooner had clean up for Charley been started, then Francis came along to finished off what Charley hadn’t.
Again, I was grateful.
It was hard work, clean up was arduous and lasted for weeks, insurance claims were exhausting and the unexpected expenditure of money was nerve wracking but we were safe.
The overall loss in Volusia County was terrible, and so I felt like our family got off light.
So this year, as Dorian safely slipped passed the Florida eastern coast line, we were blessed when so many other communities were devastated! Some even lost their lives
I am reminded…yet again…to live everyday with intention! One simply never knows.
I certainly have lived through plenty enough example of this in my lifetime to have a full appreciation of this wisdom!
DEAR READER! WHAT’S NEXT?
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Now – I’m off to see what other BEAUTIFUL BEGINNINGS I can enjoy on this lovely day and you do the same!
After-all, everyone needs a little HOPE in their DAY and this is just the PLACE.
A place to find Hope everyday!
As always…
Go in love,
