Are We Disaster Repellent?

Are We Disaster Repellent?

That is what my daughter asked me yesterday on Easter Sunday. This following a horrible EF-3 tornado with sustained winds of 135-165 MPH that ravaged a 15-mile long, half-mile wide stretch of the north, northeast part of our town. We live in Murfreesboro, TN, and this tornado hit Friday, Good Friday, at about 12:30 p.m.

In 2005 we lived through Hurricane Katrina, and though our rental home was gutted, my office was destroyed, and the kids' school was flattened, we came out unscathed, and the home we lived in at the time, though a mile from the beach, and a trailer, no less, was undamaged!

Thursday night lightening hit one of my tallest trees, and the top half of the tree fell in my yard  Not on power lines, my car or the house, just in the yard.

Less than two weeks ago, a small tornado clipped the edge of my neighborhood severely damaging the Boys and Girls Club, a bank, and a shopping center.

Three weeks ago there was a huge fire in my neighborhood. A neighbor lost his valuable collectible automobiles and the shed that held them.

In 2001, we experienced three earthquakes in Anchorage, Alaska. And we just missed an avalanche.

In 1984, I was in a building that blew up due to a gas leak, and though I had 2nd and 3rd degree burns, I was treated and released from the hospital the same day. My colleague was in the hospital for three months.

In 1969, I was on a military base in Thailand that was bombed.

"Are we disaster repellent?" Seems like we're an attractant, but we always manage to survive unharmed, relatively speaking. My friends say I have this protective bubble around me and the kids. Maybe they're right.

Friends' and colleagues' homes were damaged, some completely destroyed. It was heartbreaking. And my neighbor's co-worker's wife and nine-week-old baby died. The father is still in the hospital but is expected to recover, physically. I don't know how he will ever recover emotionally.

All of this on top of a friend's daughter and husband being shot and killed Wednesday evening by a mentally disturbed relative.

We must count our blessings every single day, and we must not take one single breath for granted.