Shadows and Storms

Weather.Everybody talks about it. Even the ground hog,I guess.

The dogwood tree outside the window where I'm writing is coated
with ice,making it a new work of beauty for this morning. The
county schools all have at least a 2 hour delay. The ground hog in
Lancaster County will not be seeing his or her shadow in 2011!

But there's a much more serious weather issue in the world as I
write. A category 5 storm, cyclone Yasi, is making landfall in
Queensland, Australia this very moment. Record high ocean temps
and a very intense La Nina pattern have created this monster!

If I were an Aussie in Queensland I'd be pretty desperate right about
now. I would hope that I have a secure place to batten down the hatches,
maybe in my basement if it's not full of water. Speaking of water, I'd hope
that I had planned ahead and had some safe water stored up plus a water
filtration system so we could purify what water we might have access to.

Food may be hard to come by for awhile. Grocery store shelves will be
barren if they aren't already. Trucks will not be making their usual deliveries
if everything is underwater or devastated. So, I'd hope I had plenty of rice,oatmeal,
beans etc and that we had done our canning and preserving.

I'd hope that my neighbors had planned ahead as well. Then we can help
one another with all the tasks related to a storm's aftermath. Those of us who
HAD planned ahead would be in a better position to serve the rebuilding efforts
of the community.

Soon, we'll be hearing the stories of destruction and rescue. We may be
asked to donate to the International Red Cross and other relief agencies.
This is a disaster of epic proportions..an emergency to be sure!

Speaking of emergent threats and predictions,
I'm going to stick my gray head out of my burrow here to say:
"Many are warning us that a perfect storm of climate change, peak oil,
and a global economic crisis is heading our way! I'm sure the next 20 years
will be totally unlike the preceding 20 years."

I'm making preparations to help my family and my community to prepare
and to find ways of flourishing in the new realities taking shape. As a wise
person once said,"It's better to be a year too early than a day too late."
As we prepare together, let's remember to look for signs of hope and to
celebrate them together.

I'll go first: I just saw the year's 1st robin outside my window, perched
in that ice covered dogwood tree.

What do you see?