I'm grateful for...... Weathering the storm

Playing along with "I'm grateful for.."

with

Maxabella Loves

Today it's personal.....

It's been a week of  running on adrenalin and a good few doses of coffee....

of trying to tear myself away from the TV and the Beaureu of Meterology website

of unanswered phone calls to my friends anf family as they bunkered down, without power to face the largest cyclone in Queenslands living memory.

I don't usually get too personal on the blog, but today is different.

A bit about me....

I may live in South East Queensland but I am a North Queensland girl at heart.

Townsville is my hometown.

My first teaching job was "a country posting" in a small school an hour North of Townsville,  Ingham.

My Mother hails from Innisfail.

This weekend, these places, so treasured by me, will begin the clean up, of debris strewn across lawns and schools.

Whilst "My Pigeon Pair" slept soundly in their beds unaware of the tumultuous weather affecting the places they love,  my friend, in Tully, was attempting to get her pigeon pair to sleep in their households bathroom, amidst the freight train roar of the cyclone.

The morning after Yasi, my mundane daily routine of boiling the kettle and calling Mum had my stomach in knots.

No phone call today. No kettle boiling at their place this morning.

What did the night bring?

School, for my students, was on as usual.  

We went to the library and read stories about storms to ease their fears.

But not for my old students, the first ones that I ever taught.

Instead their school was thrashed 300km winds and flooding rains, library books packed away in plastic containers in hope that they will withstand the inundation of flood waters. 

At home we soaked up every ounce of sunshine with a savour we have not felt before.

I delighted in watching my safe children, fearless of the weather and the water, galavanting under the sprinkler, catching the water in their mouths.

I went to work, the normality of the everyday routine was hard.

My body was there listening to the children's stories of storms, floods and cyclones, 

but my heart and mind was in the North, weathering the storm, right alongside those that I love.