Life’s Storms

This story is not a sad story, though at times it may seem to be. It is real and is the story of a young lady who faced the fiercest, most awful storm of her life. At times it seemed the storm would never end and would consume her slowly until the end of her days.

It is the story of a young lady whose serendipitous discovery of a wise old sage who had much to tell her. She sat and listened to the old man pour out words comfort, wisdom and healing. This is the story of a new life, a reclaimed and a life in which the things of the past exist no more. She is a new creation.

The first winds of the storm started as a gentle breeze. As time crept by the breeze became brisk and gained intensity. It was in 1999 that the breeze reached a speed strong enough to cause both physical and emotional damage. When it reached maximum velocity one of the young lady’s prized possessions was ripped from her life. In the simple blink of an eye, it was gone forever.

As slowly as the storm grew in terror, it began to fade away. The mighty behemoth never completely died, it just remained out of sight until the perfect conditions presented themselves. It took almost twenty years until the next storm warnings started to show. When the storm grew strong enough, it struck with an intensity that the young lady had never experienced. Slowly and steadily the things that she cherished were being taken away from her. All of her tears and sorrow could not bring these things back into her life.

It was in the twenty first year that the storm gained enough power to take everything away from this dear lady. It crept in during the evening when the world was still and quiet and no one was expecting a storm of this ferocity. As the winds began to sweep away all that this young lady held dear she mentally melted. All that she could do was sit and sob while one by one her treasures were blown away.

As the storm was continuing its marauding behavior an old man’s soul was disturbed. He was famliar with the great storms of life. He knew the damage that they can cause and the tears that are shed because of them. Through all of his years and all of his tears, the old man had gained much wisdom. The wisdom that the old man had gathered through the years stayed stored away in his mind for such a day such as this.

The old sage knew who had disturbed him so deeply but reaching out to her would be like a skate on thin ice. Would he be seen as an interloper or would his wisdom would be welcomed. The only way to know for certain was to contact the young lady. She would either accept his wisdom and a path out of the storm or she would turn her back on him a try to fight on her own. To the old man it was a simple decision she would listen and survive or reject him and just fade away into lonely obscurity.

Having faced his own life storms more times than he could remember, the aged one waded into the roaring tumult. When he arrived to counsel the young lady the wise man was worn and battered. On his journey to the monster storm he had faced many attacks from alleged friends and even family. People who thought that they possessed the same wisdom as he. According to them, they and they alone held all of the answers to calm the young lady’s storm. Their wisdom was weak for their solutions came from mere human thoughts alone. They did not have the wisdom that comes from years of fighting life’s battles as the old man had done.

The young lady was elated to see the lone figure coming into her life. The storm was still raging with no end in sight but accompanying the wise old man was an aura of calm and peace. The two kindred spirits sat and talked of life, life’s storms, of leaving and of staying. They both spoke and they both listened, intent on calming the storm.

The counsel lasted for minutes that, very quickly turned into hours. The storm wearied young lady became a sponge, soaking up all that the wise sage had to offer. Her listening became so intense that she was unaware when the storm had stopped. As her wisdom grew the storm had lost its fuel for destruction. It was over and as her eyes began to see the light of truth, she realized that the old man and his wisdom had departed.

Life storms had disappered from her view. Once they were gone,calm and happiness filled the void that was left behind. She tried to see the pain of her past storms but they had vanished as well. She tried to see into the future and even there, the storms were nowhere to be seen. She was happy for the first time in years.

The wise old man? He simply moved on to share his wisdom with whoever needed it.