Tornado Alley

Some people get angry at God when disasters happen.  But He doesn't promise us smooth sailing, He promises His presence through it all. 

Tornados, hail, floods and drought are all a natural part of this country.  These weather systems have been going on for thousands of years.  This place is naturally suited to grass and buffalo.  The few people who lived here were mostly nomads who moved around a lot.  It's just in the past 150 years or so that we decided to settle down here, plant crops and build cities.  We should expect that sometimes our crops will be pounded by hail, sometimes it won't rain at all and every thing dries up.  Sometimes the wind will destroy buildings.  We're not being punished when these things happen.  God isn't "mad" at us.   That's the price we pay for living here.  We pick up the pieces and rebuild.  I have come to the conclusion that we shouldn't become too attached to our possessions.  You never know when they might end up in somone's yard 100 miles away. 

We drove up to the City on Saturday and passed by some of the damaged areas.  It looks like a war zone, like they were bombed.  It's wonderful that so many people are pitching in and helping to look for those who are trapped in the rubble and helping clean up.  Also, lots of people are bringing all kinds of supplies, clothes, food, water to the workers and the people who lost their homes. 

Today we went out to the Ft. Sill National Cemetary to see Bill's dad's gravesite.  There were lots of people out there.  They had a special ceremony which we missed.  Need to read the paper more often so that we know about these things.  Then we drove out to Medicine Park to see if anything was going on there.  Nothing.  They did all their activities yesterday and the day before.  Oh well.  We went home and cleaned out one room.  We hauled off a whole lot of books, gave them to the Goodwill.  Actually, I got most of them from the Goodwill to begin with.  I've got a Kindle now and I've decided not to buy so many books now.  I can read a lot of books for free on the Kindle and then there's the public library which is also free.  There are lots of books that I would like to read but I don't want them sitting on the shelves collecting dust.

Photo of the day,  wildflowers of some kind.