Perspectives

Eight days ago a community of 50,000 were doing what they normally do on a Sunday afternoon.  For some, it was a special day because they were participating in or watching a high school graduation where kids were starting their own futures.  For others, they were were heading to church to worship.  Some were visiting friends in the hospital, others were working.  All would have never believed how their world would change around 5:30 on that Sunday.

The EF5 tornado that ripped through Joplin, Missouri, was a cause of concern for my family and I.  We have immediate and extended family members and friends who live in Webb City and within a couple of blocks of St. John's Hospital.  Amazingly enough, through social media we were able to discover that they were ok.  But so many were not.  Graduates ripped out of their vehicles as they were trying to get home.  Elderly residents who were bedridden and could not get to a safe location. Shoppers out to pick up items at Home Depot and Wal-Mart.  Customers eating pizza.

Those who are left are trying to find anything, any item, that would help them hang on to their past.  And their looking through piles of debris and communities miles away since the wind carried things up to 70 miles away.

I sat in my home last week and looked around, grateful for what I had and wondering what I would grab if I were put in their place.  Came close to it one night as we were "ripe for action" as our local weathermen called it.  Family pictures hang on my wall.  My Grandmother's tatting in a shadow box.  My camera's.  My computers that have all my family pictures scanned on their hard drives.  My medicines that keep me alive.

I'm blessed and I often forget that.  I'm sad that it took this tragedy to remind me, but it did.  I've been given a second chance, and I need to take advantage of that.  I've been re-evaluating some things in my life and hopefully some things will come forward to fruitation.  But if not, then all I need to do is remember Joplin, and how lucky I am to have what I have.