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The snow storm that I was experiencing in the last post is just a memory now.  The storm came, brought brief blinding white-out moments, bitter wind, and drifts of snow just large enough to make us spend a good part of our morning clearing it away so we could get the vehicles out of the garage and eventually out of the driveway.

The storm passed, though, and the snow melted away.  Today, the world outside my window stretches in browns and dull greens across the fields and meets a horizon of grey-blue clouds.  Today, I feel a promise of spring.

The storms nature has brought to my world – my Indiana farmhouse – have thankfully not been as intense or as damaging as they potentially could have been.  A couple of years ago, intense winds, possibly a small tornado, passed by the house, wrecking havoc with the barn doors and large tree limbs.  I made it through that, too, and felt I learned a valuable lesson from it.  (Blog post – After the Storm)

I thought about this last snow storm.  I don’t know why I’ve singled this one, because here in northern Indiana we get blizzard-like storms at least once a year.  Maybe it was just the right time for the Universe to give me some insight.

I saw this storm as part of nature’s rhythm or pattern.  Patterns and rhythms that are transient and predictable from a large perspective.  We, as humans, are part of nature, part of a bigger system that has yet to be fully explained.  We can observe the patterns in nature on a larger scale and then see how these patterns run parallel or reflect in the smaller rhythms that comprise our lives.  Don’t we have times of unexpected change so intense that we have moments of frozen blindness?  Winds of change that come with bitter, stinging thoughts, actions and words that push fiercely against and around us? Times when we can only seek shelter, stay aware, and let it all play out? And eventually it does end and we slowly collect our thoughts and our strength and begin to take the steps to clear ourselves out of the storm and the debris or damage that the storm has left.

It brings to mind the proverb:  And this, too, shall pass away.

It’s something to keep in focus when life brings a storm.  When things seem out of control, and you are experiencing a life storm or even a series of life storms,  it is ok to spend some time observing, focusing, and to recognize that sometimes things do happen that are on a scale that is larger than the rhythms of our simple lives.   We accept, allow, seek shelter, defend, wait, and eventually plan and initiate our recovery.

Most important, we don’t lose focus on the realization that this is just a storm.  It will pass.  And when it is done, you will look around, pick up the pieces and begin to do what you know you must do.  And you will know what to do once you’ve observed, considered, perhaps asked for help, and then started taking those first “after the storm” steps.

So that is what I was thinking about on this Sunday morning while I’m taking a break from my own storm … tax season.

May you face all of your storms with grace, strength, and the power of love.