Surviving Hurricane Season

Well, it came today. The annual mailing to area residents. "2008 - Hurricane Tracking and Survival Guide." A firm reminder of the fact that we here in Florida are on the cusp of this year's hurricane season. I am still working on a healthy response to this chronic anxiety-producing meteorological reality of our life here on the Coast. My first year back home from seminary, Hurricane Dennis hit the day I was to preach my first sermon in my new parish. Instead, David and I celebrated the Eucharist in our small breakfast room - with Dominic our canine companion as congregation. The year before, while I was still in New York in my last year at seminary, David was in our new home by himself when Hurricane Ivan hit. Terrifying for him. Terrifying for me being hundreds of miles away. We still feel the effects. 

      So when June 1st rolls around each year, we become on high alert. We restock our hurricane supplies. Check our gas cans. Replenish our pantry larder. Reassess our personal information. Make sure Dominic's immunizations are up to date. Move the Weather Channel to first place on our list of computer favorites. Revisit our respective parishes' storm preparedness plans. Make lists. Make lots of lists. Dip into Weather Underground [the best place for updates] each AM. And pray for a non-anxious and centered presence throughout it all.

       The last two years have been relatively gentle for us here on the Gulf Coast. Not so for others in other parts of the world. But these two milder years here have given us some breathing room to be better prepared for whatever the weather ahead. 

     It seems to me that our lives as Christians can also be seen as being always lived - in fact - during "hurricane season" in a way. Whether subtle or overt, we are always vulnerable to the powers and principalities of the world that seek to destabilize or even destroy us. May we always live in a state of preparedness as faithful Christians - stock our spiritual larders, be faithful to our spiritual disciplines, stay connected to those people in our spiritual journeys so important to us, and live each moment of each day as a precious gift from our loving God. 

     As we do so, we will move beyond simply "surviving" to really "living."