If you’ve ever been victim to a disaster, natural or otherwise, you know that the word “recovery” is easy to say, but much more difficult to get through.
A tornado hit my life – literally and figuratively. An actual tornado hit my actual house, and in more abstract parts of my life, everything else is swirling up in the air.
In the past few months, my home became a broken one then a few months later it was actually broken by the twister that tore apart Rowlett. My friends and family are alright and I am grateful, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are still messes to clean up.
I packed up my belongings to move to what I thought was a place of protection, shelter, and peace during this incredible time of turmoil only to leave that place a few months later because it wasn’t the safe haven it was promised to be. With whatever disaster has hit your life, (even several simultaneously) you can accept that you are a victim, but you don’t have to act like one.
I have a job to perform and perform well. I have several young students who are relying on my energy and direction for their eager spirits and absorbent minds. I have aging family who needs help with day-to-day life. But also now, for the first time as an adult, I have me. Me. All to myself. Me, to do as I please with my time. Me, who is capable of problem solving, growing, and rediscovering my own worth after the beat-downs that have come from all my recent tornadoes. I will recover. I will pull my belongings and my emotions out of the dark swirling sky, and reorganize them down on earth. Down where there is a lack of ego and a sense of humility. The work it will take will put things back into perspective will result in the reorganization of my life. The strength it will take to get there on my own will be my own recovery.