Violently Beautiful

Early this morning we were hit, again.  Hit by something so violent; so uncaring; so deadly; but at the same time so violently beautiful.  When you think about the destruction 'just some wind' can do it's amazing and terrifying all at the same time.  It has been unseasonably warm these last few days.  (today it was 73 degrees!)  And here in the south, that is a recipe for potentially bad weather, but I don't ever remember having it happen in January.

3 AM this morning I woke up to a keening sound outside.  It's pitch didn't change.  It droned on for about 10 minutes until I heard the sound that will drive fear into any momma...the tornado siren was going off.

where he is pointing is a
potential tornado on the ground

I immediately turned on the TV to James Spann, to see if we were in the path of a potential tornado. You can see the storm that is getting ready to hammer our little city in the picture above.  We were given the all clear.  It was a relief, but then he tells me which cities it is headed for...some of the same ones that were hit April 27th, the day we had EF 5 tornadoes rip through Alabama.  Have you ever seen what an EF 5 tornado can do to a city?  It looks like God took his finger and drew it over the land.  Nothing is left standing.  It is eerily quiet and bare. 

As I was sitting in my bed watching the weather, knowing it was going to miss us, I started thinking about the moms out there that were directly in the storms path.  My babies were safe, but theirs were not.  Tornadoes don't care about color, or socioeconomics, or if you have a family.  It is just sheer terror and destruction.  I think the bulk of the tornadoes in this area hit after the sirens stopped; around 4 AM.  The last I heard 2 were killed, including a 16 year old girl.  It breaks my heart.

So today, I will hug my babies a little tighter and tell them one more time how much I love them, and I will...

...Celebrate Life!
~ashley