TORNADO!!!!!

Tue 4/14/09

As most of you know Kelly and I moved to Murfreesboro, TN last October, and have really enjoyed the serenity of the smaller town and quiet neighborhood.
Until last Friday April 10th that is!
I happened to be home that day with Yogi, and I noticed the weather getting pretty bad outside. The skies darkened and the wind had picked up and a light rain had begun to fall.
I've never been one to be afraid of bad weather, in fact, it's always fascinated me and even as a small child I used to sit on the porch in Southern Mississippi and watch the thunderstorm clouds roll in as long as my mother would let me before demanding that I come inside to safety.
I'm the same way now, and was standing on my back deck watching the storm clouds gather when I got a call from Kelly who was at work in Nashville, TN.
She informed me that we were under a tornado watch and were supposed to get some hail and that they were all pulling their vehicles into the empty theater where she works for protection and advised me to put my truck in the garage.
I pulled my pickup into the garage and closed the door and just for precaution prepared a place in the closet beneath the stairwell with quilts and a pillow, and a radio and flashlight JUST in case I needed it.
Yogi, our little shi-tzu wont jump off the couch unless i tell him to, so I set him on it so I could get to him easily if I needed to.
Then she called again and told me a tornado was on the ground between Smyrna and Murfreesboro and to get somewhere safe. I flipped on the tv and of course they were confirming that indeed two tornadoes were on the ground to my immediate west.
So I walked out on the back deck again to look around. The sky was much darker but the rain had stopped and the wind had actually died down a little bit. I heard sirens in the distance and when I turned to go inside I got the biggest surprise of my life!
I'd never seen a funnel cloud in my life, but there it was, it was hard to say exactly how far away it was, but I imagined less than a mile, and I stopped long enough to see exactly which direction it was going while grabbing my Blackberry from my pocket holster and snapping a quick picture of it.
My heart was racing as I realized it was headed straight for us and I ran back inside and shut and deadbolted the door and grabbed Yogi and ran into the closet.
Kelly called at about the same time to tell me that there was a tornado on the ground close to me, and I told her that I saw it and it was almost on us.
Even during the conversation I could hear the wind picking up outside through the brick walls of our house, and I told her I loved her and I'd call her back as soon as it was over.
I put a thick pillow over my head and pulled the quilts over the top Yogi and I while I held him tightly to my chest. I kept calmly reassuring him,
"Its Ok! Daddy's got you! Its gonna be ok!"
THEN the wind got even louder and I started actually feeling the house shake a little and things were banging into the side of the house outside and I closed my eyes and begin to pray, asking our heavenly father to protect us and held Yogi even tighter.
I was afraid, but not afraid to die, and although Yogi and were in this small,confined, completely dark closet, I still felt a nervous peace and knew I wasn't alone.
Then...just as suddenly as it started, it was over, and I opened the closet door and looked down the hall out the window of the utility room and could still see the rain blowing sideways and the trees bent over by the wind and I knew we'd been spared.
I thanked God right there on the spot, and waited a little longer for the weather to calm a little more then got up and walked around the house checking windows. They were all intact.
As soon as the rain and wind died down I walked outside and there was debris everywhere. The pool furniture was piled neatly in front of the deck and my grill was in the middle of the deck. Someones pool slide was lying in my backyard among shingles and insulation.
I tried to call Kelly but had no cell service. So I texted her about 15 times before it showed that it had sent.
I had to let her know we were alright because I knew she'd be worried sick.

I felt really blessed after looking around, because the only damage we had from the tornado was a small piece of gutter over our back door was bent and leaking. We didn't lose a single shingle from our roof, although it tore a substantial portion of my next door neighbor's roof off.
Across the street, trees were uprooted and barns were demolished along with part of the houses, and if you've seen the news you know that parts of our new hometown look as if a bomb was dropped on it.
As far as I know Murfreesboro had two fatalities: A young mother was trying to get her 9 month old baby to shelter when they got caught in the tornado. I'm so saddened by this!!!!!
However, if you could see the devastation to homes, and property you would be amazed that more lives weren't lost!
While some people might not agree, I definitely believe that God was watching over us!
Please pray for the people who lost everything, and if you would like to make donations contact the Nashville and Murfreesboro Red Cross. I can assure you it will be put to great use!

In the meantime, it's made me stop and think; Every day we go about our lives, running the rat race, trying to provide for ourselves and our families, taking care of business, experience short-lived joy at our accomplishments, and experience mild to extreme frustrations over things out of our control.
We LIVE for the big picture that we have burned in our hearts and minds of the success we want, and we get so caught up in it that we forget to stop, notice, and truly appreciate the myriad of SMALLER pictures that make up the moments of our lives! The smile of a child, a hug, a kind word, a joke and the laughter that goes with it, the wag of a dog's tail, the fresh blossom of a newly blooming rose, the grass getting greener in the sunshine of the first days of spring, and so on.
Those are the things that are most important, yet they are also the things that we tend to forget first until we don't have all the other issues in our lives diverting our attention from them.
Jesus' last words and commandment to his disciples before he was crucified was "love one another as I have loved you!"
In the big picture of life and spirit, LOVE IS what matters most. EVERYTHING else at it's best is uncertain and only temporary!!
Peace
Jeff

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