Home of the Brave

Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Hurricane

The images of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma remind me of my own experience of Hurricane Charley – a powerful and devastating category 4 (gusts to category 5) storm that hit us directly in Charlotte County, Florida in August, 2004. I’ll never forget watching the event with some fascination through the window of a “snowbird” friend’s house to which I had evacuated (as did the storm!) further inland … that is until I told my friend by phone that her downspout had blown off the house and she reported that the house did not have a downspout. Once I realized I was watching the parts of other homes fly by I did have the wisdom to move to a safe room, where my “Florida Mom and Dad” and our two dogs waited and listened to sounds we had never heard before, the floor of the house moving beneath us. Emerging after the storm in the morning was surreal – it was so quiet – and we naively underestimated the extent of the damage as we drove about in search of the coffee we foolishly believed would be available somewhere. The drive home took a long time due to downed power lines and trees, and the slow pace of driving allowed for the impact of the devastation and destruction to sink in.  Alone in my car I wept, talked to the dog as if he would have the answers, and prayed that everyone was alive. My condo was severely damaged, many of my belongings could not be salvaged, and my sweet Paddy (the dog) was terribly discombobulated by the complete eradication of every familiar smell. We were 37 days without power, 19 without water, and there was no roof on our beautiful church. Charley was a beast!

But these memories, triggered only by recent images, are not actually the lasting or important ones … not by a long stretch! I remember most the colleague who pulled up in front of the church a few days later, his family van filled to overflowing from a Costco run, and unwrapped a granola bar before placing it in my hand certain that I hadn’t eaten that day. I can’t forget the rector handing me a highlighted parish list and advising me that the families marked had not yet been heard from, so would I please “stop by the places where we knew their homes once stood to be sure they’re alive.” (They all were – thanks be to God!) I’ll forever recall our preschool students in their temporary classrooms who, when it rained every afternoon for months, would cry and instinctively move their toys and crayons away from windows then huddle together in the middle of the room. And I’ll always smile when I hear ice cream trucks in summer – the familiar childhood sound now more associated with the “hot food and cold water” call of the Red Cross trucks that brought with them such joy and hope.

But STILL these memories are not the most important or lasting! Hurricane Charley taught me (and others) some important lessons that I wish I remembered more often. The experience taught me that people are GOOD – that the needs of ALL can, in truth, be met by the coming together of all the rest! The generosity of those I know and love AND others I’ll never know was overwhelming. Many of us had nothing – and yet we had everything we needed given to us over and over again. Closely related was the important lesson that we all NEED one another! Fiercely independent and determined to provide for myself, I had to learn to receive kindnesses with grace and gratitude. And, finally, I learned that STUFF is just that – it means nothing at all when one doesn’t know if everyone is alive and well. None of these essential learnings are “rocket surgery” … but they are the most profound truths I’ve ever been privileged to realize. I wish it didn’t take a “flashback” storm to remind me of what matters most, but the reminder is sweet and humbling once again. Thanks be to God for these recalled realities. May I recognize them more often and live worthy of the hope they inspire.

- Pastor Lisa +