Hurricanes.

When a hurricane is headed our way, we do our best to be ready.  We stock up.  We lash down.  We board up.  We hunker down.  We gas up and occasionally run to higher ground. We drink.

But when push comes to shove and that sucker comes ashore….which it inevitably  will ….we’re still at the mercy of Mother Nature.  All that planning and preparation?   Frequently right out the window and gone with the wind.

Mother Nature’s not always a welcome guest.  She’ll behave exactly as she wants to, regardless.  She can rip our houses apart, yank our trees up by their roots, threaten us with surging tides, and generally cause havoc. She’s the one with her hands on the tiller and she’s always gonna have it her way.

We watched Ian as we watch all hurricanes.  We studied the models, we assessed the tides, we listened to the alerts, we behaved responsibly.

But, in the end, it all came down to one word, sent to me earlier on Friday morning by an old college roommate.  It said simply: Prayers.

Happily for us, Ian took another path. Sadly for many, many others, Ian was a truly devastating event.