Rebuilding

I may have mentioned that a tornado came through our small town.  It touched down in my neighborhood, just a few doors down from my home.  Five homes were badly damaged, and a lot of homes had roof torn up. 

Well, the homes down the street were a mess, fences gone, roofs with tarps over them,  and two homes very badly damaged. No deaths, which is very fortunate.

As I drive onto my street I go past all these homes.

Several houses now have new roofs.  Fences have been rebuilt.  Two of the homes have had contractors rebuild the interiors.  One home now has a contractor tearing it down to the studs to begin rebuilding.  Yesterday the home that had the roof torn off was demolished.  It will be rebuilt from the ground up.

It has been interesting to watch.  The night of the tornado everyone was out in the storm with chain saws, and helping hands.  We cut up trees that were down in the road, and hauled them out of the way.  Got debris cleaned up.

Lives have been disrupted.  Yet, the homes are being repaired, and rebuilt.  In a few months all the homes will be in good shape, everyone moved back in and life continues.  While some of the big trees are gone, the traces of the storm will have faded, and will be a memory.

I know, that last was a bit cliche, but it got the point across.  Life is full of set backs.  Problems arise, things rarely go as planned.  Some days I deal with the set backs better than others.  What I've watched happening down the street has helped me deal with my own set backs.

Things can be rebuilt.  Life goes on.  Staying engaged with life and striving to achieve goals helps.  Things do go bad, things do get worse.  You can let those things defeat you.

Or, you can rebuild, start over, take a deep breath and plunge in and strive to do better the next time.

It isn't easy.  Things that are worthwhile never are easy.

It is good to see the homes being rebuilt, lives returning to normal.  There is still hope.  Yes, it may be raining on my parade. Storms come, but storms don't last.  The sun does come out.

So take the set backs in stride.  Take a day or two to morn, have that pity party, feel sorry for yourself.  Then dust yourself off, and climb back up, and learn from the experience and move forward again.