Plan for the worst.
I prefer to have a bit more control than just hope and plans, but control over the weather, as much as I want that power, eludes me still.
We here in the Midwest have been positively pummeled this summer by scary, violent storms with straight line winds that reach 90+ mph and multiple tornadoes and hail and floods and huge trees dropping and power lines down and holy crap. Seeing the wreckage on television and knowing that some people lost their lives this month in these storms – it’s frightening.
When those town sirens go off and then our phones scream WARNING SEEK SHELTER you feel that primal flood of almost painful iciness through your body, Life and death.
Rational/Logic brain (odds are so very low – but NOT ZERO i feel I must add – that the house will be lifted up like Dorothy’s or the roof will collapse onto those you love) versus instinct/emotional brain (but the tornado could easily tear through this house so really nowhere is safe)
Or more succinctly (and rhymey!), Wizard brain vs Lizard brain as I read in an article recently. If I let it, my lizard brain can spin me into icy almost paralyzing fear and that awful feeling of impending doom.
But…but…but I remind myself that my house has been standing for 70 plus years and is a sturdy little guy. For the next storm (which is this weekend I think) I shall try to be more Wizard than Lizard. I am prepared (but likely will not be needed I remind myself again) to hunker down in the bathtub with blankets and pillows over us. I have jugs of bottled water. I have a battery powered radio ffs and a very cool, powerful flashlight charged and ready to go.
All of that will be ready to be flung into the bathroom at a moment’s notice. It helps no one to freak out, my little lizard brain. Simmer down, cutie. So this is how I can manage my fear. Be a Wizard.
That’s what I can do, to prepare what I can, to control what I can control.. The weather is not under my control – that will be my mantra for the next storm.
Hope for the best, yeah of course, but sure as fuck prepare for the worst.
