Music in the Storm

Last night as we were on watch for tropical storm Nicole, I laid on a bed in a room towards the back of my home talking on the phone to my sister in another state. That room had a window opened to a covered lanai, so I decided to open it to hear the sound of the rain. I’m not too sure why, but so many people like myself just love the sound of rain. It’s quite calming. As you can imagine, with a storm comes the howling winds. The sound can be quite fearsome for the faint of heart. I grew up in a hurricane zone and have been living in one for the last 14 years. The sound of the winds don’t terrify me. Actually, I fell asleep in that room last night to the sounds of the winds and rain.

I woke up about 2 AM as the storm strengthened. The window was still opened and the sounds of nature intensified. I laid in bed peacefully. My neighbor to the back has a huge mango tree and I have a fairly tall avocado tree in my back yard. Together, the wind made music with the leaves of those trees. When someone else might have heard a frightening sound, I heard a melody that put me right back to sleep.

Isn’t it amazing how we can all experience the same storm yet have totally different responses? Maybe because we’ve been there before, we know how the story ends. We stay in peace and as we say ‘ride out the storm’. Other times we walk into places or are thrown into ‘storms’ we’ve never seen before. Anxiety and fear invade our space and we feel totally out of control. Quite often someone who may have navigated that disturbance before try to reassure us that all will be well. It’s hard to listen when the rain is pounding and the winds are roaring. It is only when we choose to quiet the noise of our own fears and distress that we can begin to hear the ‘music’.

The same wind that evokes fear in us is the same wind that can cause us to soar like an eagle. Causing us to rise – elevating us to levels we hadn’t imagined. Storms have a way of strengthening and refining us in remarkable ways. If we only take a moment to grasp the lessons learned, we too can hear the strains of a new tune being birthed from the storms we face. It is said that ‘every storm runs out of rain’ – this too shall pass. When we see the trees dancing and making music in the storms, may we be reminded that we too can ‘sing and dance in the rain’.

 “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”

Isaiah 55:12