The storms of life come in all varieties, don\u2019t they?<\/p>\n
The other night my neighborhood got hit with an actual storm.\u00a0 Heavy rain, massive lightning and a possible tornado. \u00a0I was oblivious.\u00a0 I had seen the radar before bed and it looked like the worst part was supposed to go north of me, so I didn\u2019t give it a second thought.\u00a0 I never even heard the sirens.<\/p>\n
But in the morning, I found the grill cover totally blown off (fortunately it didn\u2019t blow away, just off) and several neighbors lost a partial tree.\u00a0 My house appeared relatively unscathed, with the exception of a new water stain in the ceiling of the boys\u2019 bedroom.\u00a0 Ugh.\u00a0 Roof damage?\u00a0 Add that to the list of \u201cStuff to deal with\u201d.\u00a0 It\u2019s always something. \u00a0But Allstate is living up to thier motto.\u00a0 As I picked up the phone to call my agent the other day, the phone rang.\u00a0 It was Allstate.\u00a0 Whoa, talk about being \u201cin good hands\u201d.\u00a0 Granted they were calling about something totally unrelated, but still, how weird is that?<\/p>\n
Other times, we have more figurative \u201cstorms\u201d and we don\u2019t escape the stress of the experience.\u00a0 Like last week when I went out to my car to head to work and found it with a dead battery.\u00a0 Not just once, but TWO days in a row.\u00a0 Ok, obviously it was time to take my car in.\u00a0 I was so thankful for helpful, understanding neighbors, co-workers and friends who offered assistance through that.\u00a0 On Friday morning, I sat in my car at the Hyundai dealership in tears because the woman had said to me, \u201cWell, can you just leave it here?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFor how long?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cUmmm, we can probably get to it on Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Are you freaking kidding me?!\u00a0 No, I can\u2019t leave my car til Tuesday.\u00a0 I have places to be that I can\u2019t run to since it\u2019s 100 degrees out and I need to show up non-sweaty and melted.\u00a0 Additionally, how am I supposed to pick my kids up from school?\u00a0 I do have a new bike, but I\u2019m pretty sure the 4 of us won\u2019t all fit.\u00a0 UGH.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t you have any family to pick you up?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
The only family I have here are my kids and given their ages, they don\u2019t have cars of their own.\u00a0 Thanks for the reminder that I am doing this totally on my own, Miss Hyundai.<\/p>\n
So, off I went to Auto Zone for a new battery.\u00a0 And it was as simple as that.\u00a0 I was back in business.\u00a0 The tears had really been unnecessary.\u00a0 I was making the situation worse than it actually was.<\/p>\n
And still other times, there are the storms that come in waves.\u00a0 Sometimes they seem not so bad, I\u2019ve escaped the worst part, the eye has passed.\u00a0 And then, I\u2019m faced with another round.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t want to harp on this, but let me just say again, being a single parent is hard.\u00a0 I always had a tremendous amount of respect for parents who do it alone, but now that I\u2019m living it, it\u2019s a whole new ballgame.\u00a0 Dealing with the roof, and the car battery, and all the other storms\u2026alone.\u00a0 Then you throw in the emotional turmoil of the innocent bystanders who show up in the aftermath.<\/p>\n
Yesterday morning, my kids were getting ready for school.\u00a0 I was in the kitchen making lunches when Silas came in wearing just his underwear having a total meltdown.\u00a0 He wanted the belt that Ethan was wearing.\u00a0 Finally I got the whole story.\u00a0 There is a rule at school regarding uniforms, if a child has belt loops, he needs a belt.\u00a0 (A couple years ago, I went as far as cutting all the belt loops off of the boys\u2019 shorts in order to avoid this.\u00a0 Yeah, I know, I\u2019m a terrible parent for teaching my kids to rebel against the rules.\u00a0 Don\u2019t judge me, it was about survival.\u00a0 And I just may do it again.)\u00a0 So, Silas was freaking out because if he didn\u2019t wear a belt he would get an \u201cOopsie\u201d note and have to go to Mr. Keller\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, for most, not a huge deal right? You just find the belt. \u00a0Well, what do you say to your kid at 7:45 in the morning when his belt is across town at his dad\u2019s house? \u00a0This was a reminder that my kids have to deal with the effects of a storm they had no control over.\u00a0 They have two houses.\u00a0 Stuff gets left at one house or the other.\u00a0 It gets lost. And we do the best we can to remember everything or make due with what we\u2019ve got.\u00a0 But sometimes we just need a little grace because the reality is nobody wins in this arrangement.<\/p>\n
Eventually, Ethan offered the belt to his brother.\u00a0 And I drove the kids to school feeling a little more sad than other days.<\/p>\n
After drop off I didn\u2019t have lots of time, but I knew I needed a clear my head run.\u00a0 I went over to Al Foster trail, waved to Marxkors as I drove past her graceful stride in the Fleet Feet singlet that mirrored the one I was wearing, and laced up my shoes.<\/p>\n
When I started running the fog was thick.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t even see the Meremac from the trail.\u00a0 The lush greenery surrounding me made the trail seem dark even though the sun had been up for a couple hours already.\u00a0 I started running.\u00a0 Heart pounding, lungs burning and the satisfying sound of gravel and leaves crunching beneath my feet.\u00a0 Immediately I began to feel better.\u00a0 I only had time to go a couple miles out so when my Garmin beeped at 2 miles, I turned around and headed back.\u00a0 As I was within about a mile of the parking lot, I realized that the fog had started to burn off, the sun was coming through and there was the river.\u00a0 On my return, I never did see those two huge spiders on their gigantic webs that were impossible to miss on the way out.\u00a0 (Yikes, I did a hair check, just in case)\u00a0 And as I rounded the trail away from the river and back to my car, the sky was blue and the sun was high.<\/p>\n
How in the world did the sky change that quickly?\u00a0 In a half an hour the scenery looked completely different.\u00a0 And my mood was lighter.<\/p>\n
We really don\u2019t have control over any of the storms in life.\u00a0 I guess that\u2019s what makes them storms.\u00a0 I know I\u2019m dealing with a storm that will come and go for the rest of my time on this earth.\u00a0 But, as I ran yesterday, I was reminded that no matter what small storms come in the aftermath as a result of the devastation from the storm that lead to my new life, the sun will shine again.\u00a0 Sometimes I have to wait for the rain to stop and the fog to burn off, and sometimes I may feel like the wind is whipping me to pieces, but I\u2019ll wait it out, cry it out and hold on for dear life until the sun comes out again.\u00a0 Because if there is one thing I know, somehow it always does.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The storms of life come in all varieties, don\u2019t they? The other night my neighborhood got hit with an actual storm.\u00a0 Heavy rain, massive lightning and a possible tornado. \u00a0I was oblivious.\u00a0 I had seen the radar before bed and it looked like the worst part was supposed to go north of me, so I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-randomthoughts","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4eO4v-aJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":666,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665\/revisions\/666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}