What a week this has been. We’ve been ducking tornadoes night and day with more on the way. That fact has manifested itself by cutting through the heart of Joplin, Missouri. For every home or business lost, there is a story. In the Mid-West we are used to tornadoes. What we aren’t used to is the number and ferocity they have come this Spring.

One of the puzzling things left behind in the rubble will be shelves perfectly in place and not tipping anything over in it’s wake. The whole house may be gone but there seems to be a choice about leaving a calling card. “Hello….I was here but you weren’t home. I’ve left your favorite vase on the table.” Each person is gifted with a tiny treasure left behind.

There are always stories of strange incidents. I was raised in Omaha, NE. and there was a terrible tornado one Spring. My dad visited the area after the twister had passed over and told of straw being driven into telephone poles. Chickens running around alive but all their feathers plucked out.

Most are glad they’re alive after the onslaught. Mother Nature seemingly has shown power great enough to be respected. We get too big for our britches at times and we’re brought back to harsh reality. Nature doesn’t have to be all honey and roses and we’d better be grateful for the good times because sooner or later we are caught in disasters uncommon to us or our way of thinking.

Randomly flipping the killer vortex ‘at will’ it leaves death and destruction behind. Each person has been effected in one way or another. Some of the living will never be free of the horror they lived through…….often losing families or pets. I am personally praying for a mother who had her baby sucked out of her arms. I cannot begin to imagine the heartache she must live with.

As I went to the mailbox this morning I found a bird's nest laying on the ground. It was so neatly made and fell from the big white pine tree in front of our place. There were no eggs in it so hopefully it was empty and the birds had hatched. Just another victim of our stormy weather. Winds that will not die.

Essentially Esther