This weeks topic - the calm after the storm - was selected by Ramana. While researerching the topic I came across this poem by someone named Rachel:
Calm After the Storm
I am tired, I am worn
For this is the calm after the storm
Heart beat ceases to race
Everything seems to fall into place
Take comfort in cycles and patterns,
Separate the insignificant from what matters
History repeats itself they say,
The universe works in funny ways
So push thoughts of growing older,
Of growing colder, of forgetting to be bolder
To the back of my mind
Shelved away somewhere difficult to find
And think instead of stories that turn out okay
Think of the sound of waves and rainy days
For I am slowly breathing
Almost sleeping
Nearly dreaming
Simply being.
Storms - be they weather related, relationship issues or simply life issues like losing a job, divorce, etc. can wreak havoc. Stress can be brutal, but it is really only temporary as the storm passes. The period in which things improve after a difficult, stressful, chaotic time - that is the calm after the storm.
The calm can be something as simple as a few drinks after a particularly stressful day at work, a weekend get away or something entirely different.
We've all had stormy periods in our lives. In my life the last two years of caregiving for my late wife was particularly stressful. The calm after the storm started when three of my
oldest friends flew to Texas the first weekend after Lynn died. Their visit kick-started my recovery from a very trying time.
In late March of 2000 I was living in Fort Worth, Texas when an F3 tornado rolled through the city. The tornado did 450 million dollars worth of damage to homes and businesses. I was less than two blocks away from feeling the full force of that tornado. My office was two blocks from the Cash America building shown in the photograph and in fact I had left for home about five minutes before the building was hit by the storm.
One last "storm" is todays blog. The storm is about to pass, the blog posted and the calm after the storm begins - the wait to see if anyone reads and comments on the thing. Hmm - that sounds like another storm. Oh well, life's a bitch as the saying goes.
Be sure to see Ramana's take!
The other half of the 2 on 1 will most certainly read and comment. Both of us have used personal storms and calms but you have brought in another dimension with the Texas Tornado.
ReplyDeleteStrangely enough, I don't agree with the statement that life is a bitch, Life at least for me and many others that I know here is quite placid after many years of being hard. Well deserved retirement brings with it personal health and financial problems but it also brings some much needed rest and recovery from other storms. The trick is in accepting what life has to deal to us and play the hand to the best of our ability.
I agree with your last paragraph. Life's a bitch is always (by me) said tongue-in-cheek or tinged with irony.
ReplyDeleteit's strange what we think of. but as soon as you said "life's a bitch" I remembered the zippo lighter that the Marine sent from Viet Nam to Bob. it had Snoopy dancing on it... as only Snoopy can. and it was inscribed on the other side Life's a Bitch. I'm sure for the Marine at that time it was a bitch. but it also represented the real message. that it may be a bitch but we dance anyway.
ReplyDeleteat least to me that's what it meant.
it was one of my few treasures. and it was stolen once when I moved to a new apartment after Bob died. (from using the lighter too many times to light those poisonous cigarettes.)
I had moved myself. had few possessions as always. someone had been watching I guess. when I went upstairs they helped themselves to the few boxes in the bed of my truck.
ah well. life's a bitch! xo SH
that's a snoopy hug Shack. Rummy already knows.
I usually follow it with and then you die - when I say it people see me chuckling and know it is a joke - more in writing. I -love Snoopy, used to see Charles Schultz at Oakland Seals hockey games all of the time
ReplyDelete