Florida was like a five year vacation in some ways. I didn’t want to move there. Brad had tried to get me to move there before we went to Alabama in 2002 but I wouldn’t do it. Instead, we lived in Alabama for almost two years and then we moved to Florida. I guess the Alabama weather helped to prepare us for Florida. Baby steps.

Florida has a color we don’t have in Arizona. It is called GREEN. You may have heard of it. There are impostors all over Arizona that try to mimic green, but they never quite make it. In Florida, GREEN is lush and wet and full of life. There is green everywhere. I loved it. You don’t have to water your lawn in Florida every day. It rains almost every day so, there isn’t much point to it. A lot of people still do have sprinklers and timers and water their lawn like religion because, well, it IS the South and people have a lot of pride in their yards, houses, clothes, accents, manners, etc. down there.

Our sprinklers died pretty quick after moving into our house. I loved that house. It was twenty years old and we bought it from the original owners who had also designed it. Those facts equaled up to a wonderfully unique and personal house….that was ready for everything to break and be in need of updating. We were not really good at that kind of thing so, when it broke…it tended to stay broke unless it was vitally important. Brad wasn’t much of a handy man so if I couldn’t figure it out or find cheap labor to fix it….well, let’s just say I got creative.

I love my house now. It is only seven years old so things don’t break quite as frequently. In spite of it being a model home and already having an acceptable color scheme, I have found ways of updating it anyway. I’ve added storage mostly, and a few cosmetic things, but other than that I’ve focused my efforts elsewhere.

Tonight I am sitting on the floor in my bedroom in front of my sliding glass door watching the haboob as it makes it’s dusty way across my yard. I can hear things bumping around and the joyous ringing of my wind chimes as they get caught up in the party. It makes me miss the big storms in Florida. I know, who in their right mind misses hurricanes? Well, nobody ever accused me of being in my right mind (lately), so….

There is something majestic and wonderful about a storm that can rip through the countryside like a hurricane. It comes on with a frustrated fury as it blows the trees every which way. Left, right, back, forth….it’s like the wind can’t make up it’s mind where it wants to go. It just wants to go somewhere!

I think I can relate to hurricanes. No, I’m not a destructive force that can uproot forty foot trees, but there are times when I feel like running away and just don’t know which way to go. Left, right, back, forth…circling my problems like wind around a tree.

Eventually, a hurricane will move on and wear itself out as it crosses land or sea. I don’t know if it finally knocks down enough houses or trees to feel fulfilled or if it just decides it isn’t worth it anymore. Whatever the reason, it finally loses steam. Maybe it just gives up. Maybe the problem that got it all riled up and in a mad rage just goes away or, it decides that all the effort it is putting into running away could be spent on something more productive.

Most of what I know about ‘mother nature’ I learned from those old butter commercials from when I was a kid. “Don’t mess with Mother Nature.” I may not be ‘mother nature,’ but I am a mother. I think the same advice could be given about me. When I am in my ‘hurricane mood’ and I’m running around trying to knock over trees and solve my problems, or out run them, it might be a good idea to not ‘mess with me.’  Let me just blow my way through and wear myself out. Eventually, I too will run out of steam or decide it isn’t worth it. The sun will come out, the rain and wind will stop, and things will calm down again.

Or, I just may knock your house down. You never know….cause I said so.

Photo credit: http://www.google.com/imgres?q=images+of+mother+nature&start=292&hl=en&client=safari&sa=X&rls=en&biw=1345&bih=575&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=KOpbDRITXsk-PM:&imgrefurl=http://www.toughroughandmusk.com/&docid=YPdinldknHHIfM&imgurl=http://pkids.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/mother-nature1.jpg&w=283&h=424&ei=3VMfUPffFsX4igLcvoDABQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=631&vpy=189&dur=2267&hovh=275&hovw=183&tx=125&ty=209&sig=113066672481944259300&page=10&tbnh=128&tbnw=84&ndsp=31&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:292,i:18