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| 1881 Snowstorm, Minnesota |
So many storms everywhere reaping havoc all over the world. It can be a little overwhelming just to hear about it, never mind the unfortunate souls who must live through these experiences.
We all have our own personal storms of life to deal with and sometimes they can be overwhelming, leaving us feeling isolated and in our turmoil. There is much truth in that we alone have our unique experiences, but it is also true that others have endured, or are enduring, similar tumults.
Storms often have devastating consequences and sometimes lead to further disaster or difficulties, such as an earthquake setting off a tsunami. A heavy season of snow or rain storms creating flooding. A wrong decision for which we have to deal with the consequences. For me, how snow and rain storms trigger my migraines and joint paint. Almost losing my father, losing my step-father. My husband being laid off, still. Things that can set us reeling.
With inner storms or conflicts I find it's important to do everything within our ability to not let a situation escalate. To respond to strife without letting fear be our master. To allow a storm die down and not make it worse. To promote peace. To heal. But often our human nature prompts us to go to extremes and answer anxious situations with anxious answers. When instead of responding to a situation we react, with fear. And instead of taking an assertive approach, we become aggressive.
"Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another." Romans 14:19
Yet sometimes in emergencies an aggressive response is needed. Releasing the floodgates in one area to help curtail more widespread disaster in another, like they've had to do on the Mississippi River. But what about the repercussions from this? The homes and farm land it will damage? The effect the damage to agriculture will have on the economy? There is seldom an easy answer. Times like these require a great deal of wisdom.
I have a fascination with weather phenomenon. My mother was a science teacher and I'm plain curious, what can I say? One of my favorite books that I own is a 2001 reissue of
Historic Storms of New England by Sidney Pearley, originally written in 1891. It's official title is
Historic storms of New England. Its gales, hurricanes, tornadoes, showers with thunder and lightning, great snow storms, rains, freshets, floods, droughts, cold winters, hot summers, avalanches, earthquakes, dark days, comets, aurora-borealis, phenomena in the heavens, wrecks along the coast, with incidents and anecdotes, amusing and pathetic. The amusing and the pathetic part gets me and I can only imagine this description snuck in because from the writer's vantage point some of the accounts are rather strange. I know that
this reader finds many of them to be peculiar accounts when looking back in time from a more modern, sophisticated, and educated perspective. Yet this book has given me some extraordinary insights into the lives of the people in early New England who lived through many storms and how they experienced them. The way they did was often dictated by what they knew and believed during that period of history. And often much different than how we experience them now. But there are also core emotions, etc. that remain the same as ours today.
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| 1755 Earthquake, Boston, MA |
When writing fiction conflict is key. It is important to continually raise the stakes. Conflict comes from not only external circumstances, but from the internal conflict that the characters experience: emotional, mental, spiritual. There is much we can learn from our own storms of every sort and bring that to our writing desk. We can also learn from others and the past. Or from the ingenuity of those who survived the
Great Snow Storm of 1888 ("The White Hurricaine") who as a result developed the first subway system in the U.S. in Boston, MA. But what of the then residents of the Northeast who had grown complacent about the great threat of earthquakes (a danger to a subway), as 17th and 18th century New England had been a major area of seismic activity such as in the
Great Earthquake of 1755. Time has a way of healing our recollections, our conflicts, our storms.
But we do learn. How to fight wildfires. Anticipate spring freshets. Deal with post disaster stress. Lend a helping hand. Offer hope. Share a word of peace. Go on. Find our center in Christ so when circumstances change we are not shaken.
How do you handle conflict in your writing? Is writing healing to you during times of conflict? What storms are you weathering?
