October: My favorite month of the year, but there's a hurricane headed toward Bermuda.

Fall or autumn is my favorite season, and October is one of my favorite months of the year. October is also one of the most beautiful months of the year, but it comes during hurricane season, and when Mother Nature has her say, she always has the last word. To everything, there is a season.

When I was a child, I spent some time in a place called, "Tornado Alley." During tornado season, tornado warnings were announced on a continual basis.  Watching the news, everyone was terrified. I remember sitting on the sofa in the darkness with my brothers and sisters, waiting for the storm to pass and secretly wishing it would  pass just close enough for us to watch it touch down, but far enough away for it to cause no damage to our neighborhood or to any other neighborhood, for that matter. 

We lived in a nine-room house with connecting rooms, and there was a special place to hide--a long hallway situated in the middle of the house. We could close the bathroom, dining room, and two bedroom doors and nothing could touch us. The entire house was built around the hallway. Now that I look back on it, a safe shelter must have been it's purpose from the very beginning, though we were never told that. When it rained and thundered terribly hard and bolts of lightening streaked across the sky, we huddled together underneath someone's bed, but that was before we were shown the perfect place to hide. 

Listening to the weather report seemed far more terrifying than looking out the window, but since we were prohibited from being anywhere near a window, we huddled together with one or both parents quietly watching TV until the sirens began screaming overhead. It was frightening and exciting, all at the same time. Once the sirens stopped and after getting permission, we rushed outside to see the blackened sky. The weather was often balmy and breezy, and the sky took on a reddish hue. It was simply beautiful. If there had been rain, we made sure to splash into every puddle. Sometimes we sat on the curb and watched our neighbors playing up and down the street. 

Each night after a tornado, we were told to get on our knees and pray that no lives had been lost during the storm and to give thanks that the tornado had spared our home, our neighborhood, and finally, our lives. It's not that we were insignificant. It's just that we were not the only ones in danger. We always remembered, it was not only about us. That's what I learned from tornadoes.  

There's a tornado headed toward Bermuda in the coming days, and although it's not headed for the U.S.A., I am reminded that there are people, neighborhoods, and children hiding in safe places so many miles away, and if I pray for their safety, not only will they be safe, we will be safe here in the U.S.A.    (Although I like believing this, I know that sometimes my prayer will be answered and sometimes not because
to everything, there is a season.)