PB&Js and Tornados

Two things happened last week that made me feel better about our unfinished house. Actually, neither of them really happened, but they almost did. 

1. The tornado— Our friend Chrissy had just dropped her daughter Eva off at our house for the evening and was going to meet her husband, Andy, for a date downtown. It was raining and hailing, but that’s happened almost daily this month, so we were unfazed. Until the tornado sirens went off. 

Andy called saying there were funnel clouds and we needed to go to their house and into the basement. (Our house doesn’t have a room without an exterior wall, much less a basement.) So the four of us jumped in the car and raced seven blocks back to their home. We huddled in the basement and I imagined the roof blowing off. I knew our entire basementless house would be gone by the time it was over. 

After thirty minutes, the tornado warning had been lifted and we emerged to find everything exactly as it was before the storm, save a few fallen tree branches. 

I still had a house. I had much to be grateful for.

2. Feeding the Homeless— My uncle invited me to accompany him downtown to pass out peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and bottled waters in his red wagon. He ended up having to take his neighbor to the ER that day, so we didn't go, but I still thought about the homeless men and women who wouldn’t have their PB&Js that night.  

I wondered where they had gone during the tornado warning. I imagined they were probably less worried about having a house to sleep in than they were about finding their next meal.

I had a house to sleep in. And as many PB&Js as I wanted. 

***

Jordan has made lots of progress on the house this week, including installing, sanding and staining wood floors, painting everything, putting in new windows, hanging corrugated steel outside, and building a front pergola. We’ve had help from many generous friends. We still don’t know if we’ll finish by next week. But that’s a tiny, little problem. 

I’m grateful for our unfinished house that didn’t fall over in the tornado, in which I can eat piles of PB&Js.