3 Lessons from Sandy

3 Lessons from Sandy

This past week those living on the East coast of the United States and Canada were interrupted by Hurricane Sandy.  It was a devastating storm that brought about huge amounts of rain, wind and destruction.

Hours before the storm even made landfall reports of downed power lines and trees were already on the news. People were going out to the store and stocking up on basic supplies. Businesses shut down and the airports were closed. 

I live near Toronto, and even though we didn’t have to deal with the storm surge, we received a huge storm that took out the power, brought major rain and heavy winds.

This won’t be the only blog added to the web this week in regards to Hurricane Sandy. But that’s ok. We all have a unique view of the world and can all add to our collective learning experience. Here is what I have to offer…

What did I learn from Sandy this week?

1. That Preparation is Key. Storms come, that is a fact of life. I am not aware of a place we could hide that we wouldn’t have to deal with some major weather events at some point.

Depending on where you live, you know the times of the year you are most likely to face something. Where I live I know winters are tough, it gets cold and snow can fall at any time.

I know to get my car ready for this season. I put on winter tires, keep the washer fluid topped up and the gas tank never gets so low that we might get stranded.

Storms come, being prepared will help you weather them.

2. Thank You Weather Man. They usually get a bad rap for failing to predict the weather with 100% accuracy and ruining your trip to the beach! Seriously though, we have to be very thankful for the science that gives us the ability to predict these major weather patterns.

Thousands of lives were saved this week because Sandy was able to be tracked. Science is our ability to understand our physical world and in this case we were able to predict this storm and take the precautions necessary.

3. You Were Warned. Now it’s up to you to take action and be responsible for you and your family’s well-being  There were many people that heard the warnings and decided to leave town, some went to the store and stocked up and still others underestimated the power of the storm and did nothing.

When you hear a warning, you need to process that information on your own. We live in a world full of fear, if you listened to everyone’s warnings you would crawl under your bed and stay there!

Warnings are only as good as the action we put behind them to make the proper adjustments.

Storms are exciting and terrifying all at the same time. Why is this?

Because no matter how well we can predict and prepare for them, they come. And when they come they don’t apologize. They are a force beyond our control.

This awe helps put ourselves into perspective. Something greater than ourselves exists that hold the weather patterns in His hands. May we take these moments as reminders that our lives are precious and our existence is delicate and may this help us live with eternity in our hearts.

What did you learn from Sandy this week?