Reflecting on 2009 Ice Storm

Feb 26, 2021

(Originally posted 15 February 2009.)

Lasting impressions: the green glow and my body’s disconcerted response from the transformer boxes popping…feeling simultaneously magical and catastrophic qualities…to quote my husband, “The cold makes me want to ‘migrate or hibernate'”…. the sounds of snapping trees that started about 1:30 p.m. on Tuesday and lasted for hours…migrating to Common Grounds to get warm, eat hot food and charge my cell phone like so many others and catching the frenzied buzz of adults not at work…carry in logs, feed fire, carry in more logs, feed fire, carry in more logs, grateful for a fire place…appreciating my ingenuity boiling eggs and cooking sausage on my fireplace rim…my meditation with the trees and feeling calmly reassured…and still feeling my own grief…catching my fear rising with the sounds of tree limbs falling on the roof above….shattering glass sounds as the ice gave way to the rising temperatures….keeping it in perspective and realizing this is not Katrina…grief and empathy for the families of local high school boys killed in a fire…grateful to live in a caring community…..walking the neighborhood with my son and camera…recognizing my centering response was to view my surroundings with the viewpoint of awe and beauty.