Dreams

One of my reoccurring nightmares is of being in a basement with my children and watching a big black tornado bearing down on us. Terrified, knowing its going to hit us and not being able to do anything about it. Just bracing myself, helpless and paralyzed with fear.

I started having that dream when I was pregnant with my youngest son. I had it several times in the months before his birth and then maybe once or twice a year ever since.

It dawned on me the other day that last week while the tornado was on the ground, I was living that nightmare but just didn't realize it.

We had no idea that the tornado was only a mile or two away. No idea at all that it was bearing directly down on us, we were directly in its path. If it had stayed on the ground only another minute or two it would have hit our house, us in the basement.

We seriously had no idea. We were in the basement. We were sitting on the floor watching the television coverage of it and listening to the police scanner. We really weren't taking it seriously at all. We've all lived here all our lives, we've sat through many,many,many warnings sometimes in the basement, sometimes not. I think part of the reason why we took the warning so lightly is that it is a common occurrence around here (especially in the spring and summer). I think it happening at 10:30 at night was another reason. We couldn't see the sky. We had no idea how bad it was. We couldn't see it with our own eyes. Seeing is believing, right? We're all avid sky-watchers during tornado season. We know what bad sky's look like and we trust our own eyes much more than we trust the sights and sounds on the television screen.

I'm not totally sure what the lesson or message is for me in all of this, other than its just far too big of a coincidence to just ignore. Maybe its "Pay Attention" "Take things a little more seriously" or maybe "Sometimes you don't know EVERYTHING and its good to listen to others who do"