Those who know me well know I’ve been a stress case lately because of writing stuff. Sometimes it seems there’s so much negative in this business to focus on, it can be all-consuming. I know I’ve had it on my mind a lot lately, letting it overshadow some of the good in my life. This morning I have a different perspective.

Those of you not living in the Pacific Northwest missed the mother of all wind-storms last night. Hurricane force winds in certain places. We have a large stand of old Douglas fir in the park behind our house. I admit to being a little scared they would fall – that’s how strong the wind was – but our house is far enough away that if one had, we would have been okay (barely). That didn’t comfort my kids much though. We lost power around 4pm yesterday and just got it back a few minutes ago. My house was on the edge of the outage, so our street was out, but the school behind us and the houses across the park at the back of our property never lost power. It was a long night for us last night – windy, howling, rain falling sideways in sheets, a bit eerie with the storm and candles burning everywhere. Not to mention the “no power” thing wigged my Gremlins out more than I can say. Anyway, this morning when the storm was over, I went to the club to work out (yeah, just down the road they had power) and drove home a different route. And only about three blocks from me a tall Douglas Fir in another nearby park did fall, right in the middle of a house. Cut the two-story home in two.

So this morning, the stress and anxiety over the writing stuff seems fairly minor in comparison to what others are going through today. I haven’t heard yet if there were people in the house when this happened, but I hope not. Count your blessing that your family is safe today. I know I will.