What a hurricane (or himmicane) can teach you about life

This past weekend, the east coast of the U.S. experienced a Category 1 hurricane.  I've always wondered why these destructive weather phenomena have to be named after women...

Having been raised on the Gulf Coast of Texas, I, surprisingly, never went through a hurricane.  That all changed when I moved to Orlando, FL.  Little did I know that 2004 would be "the year of the hurricanes" for Florida.

I was speaking in New York at the DMA awards luncheon at the Waldorf Astoria hotel just as Florida started receiving warnings that a Cat 3 hurricane was headed straight to the west coast of the state with a projected path that moved it up Interstate 4 and through metro Orlando.  Fortunately, I was able to get out of NYC and into Orlando a day prior to landfall.  My husband was in Phoenix, so I would be going this first hurricane of my life, as the adult in charge of a 13 year old, a dog and two cats.

We had water, food, candles, matches and all the other required "Home Depot is going to sell out of this" items needed to survive the storm.  It was scary, but we survived with very minor damage to our home/yard.

Maybe hurricanes can teach us lessons:

1)  Always be prepared.  It doesn't matter if it is a physical storm, a spiritual storm, or an emotional storm.  Life throws storms our way often and sometimes they come with dynamics that we don't think we'll live through.  You will if you are prepared.

2)  Stay calm through the storm.  Sure, I had to put the teenager and all the pets in a small bathroom when the patio slider starting shaking due to high winds, but we all remained calm (OK, the cats were freaking out a bit) and the high winds passed.  Had I panicked or thought, "Hey, it's OK to stand here and watch this slider shake," we might not have fared so well.

3)  You've got to clean up after the storm passes.  While our damage was minimal compared to many in the Orlando area, we still had branches down, a few shingles blown off, all the pool furniture to retrieve out of the pool and some water seeping in.  Just like any catastrophe that blows into our life, you've got to pick up the pieces, shake off the hurts eventually and move on 'cause another storm may be brewing.

There were two more hurricanes that passed through the Orlando area in 2004 (and we had the plywood window coverings with the storm names on them to prove it), but they didn't seem so frightening.  Why? Because I had already been through one and knew to be prepared, to stay calm and to clean up afterwards.

How about your storms that might be on the horizon?  Are you prepared to face them?  Will you remain calm?  Will you clean up the mess they cause?

Here's hoping the U.S. is spared any major hurricanes this year and that our friends and family in the NE are helped in their clean up efforts.