Monday, January 23, I was droopy eyed and weary. Many of us spent the previous night awake due to the tornado sirens, howling wind, bright lightening, and terrible thunder. I kept going up and down the stairs to turn on the TV and not be on the 2nd floor…just in case. Thankfully, our neighborhood was spared. However, in the morning, the news was so very sad. Lives and property lost and destroyed across much of our state. After I checked with my child in Birmingham and emailed the rest of the family to let them know that we were safe, I thought about all of this. I thought about my scrapbooks – all on the 2nd floor. I thought about my quilt room – also on the 2nd floor – with the myriad of books, tools, fabrics, and quilts – a lifetime of work and love poured into them. I thought about all the things I treasure and how awful if in only a few seconds they were blown from my keeping and scattered across the southern states. I thought about my child in B’ham and how lost we would be if, like another family in that area, she were taken from us. And I realized how fragile it all is. We spend hours creating our gardens, scrapbooks, quilts, art, and all manner of creative endeavors. Our books, and games, and videos…the time spent in tears and laughter or anger and frustration - all so fragile and temporary. That evening I met with the Guild Board. We talked of things minor and things of importance. We laughed together and talked together and diligently tried to the best of our combined abilities to make decisions on your behalf that would benefit the membership and help the guild to grow in number, stability, and substance. What do all of these things have in common? Everything we do, everything we decide, our attitudes and the way that we treat one another – all impact our lives, our surroundings, and the relationships with those around us. We have made poor choices in caring for the Earth and now reap the reward in Global Warming creating havoc with our weather. I know these are rambling thoughts (I never said my mind went in a straight direction) but all of these things reminded me to be wiser in the use of my time; to continue to create treasures and memories for my family and friends knowing all the while that they are not permanent but are worth the effort; to give more freely; to be more selective of my words; to be more compassionate and forgiving of others; to do everything to the best of my abilities or not at all. But most of all, to constantly reach out to others, getting to know them, learning from them, sharing with them, and just caring for them. So, induced by the death and destruction of the storms that batter us (physically and figuratively), I have found my New Year’s resolutions. But just in case you were wondering…these thoughts did NOT convince me to spend more time in the kitchen! After all, that would be just unrealistically ambitious!
