The Andersons

Was it a depression?



I started out the weekend in a funk.

You know, the kind where you just can't figure out what is wrong but you can't stop crying. Sometimes I wonder if it's depression. Rob insisted that I explain what was wrong, but I couldn't. I prayed hard that it would pass. I also decided on a little "friend" time, some good food, a little wine (to be honest), and some retail therapy.

It helped.

I came home Saturday evening, took two Tylenol PM (wine headache), and thought a good deep sleep might clear my mind. Then I realized I couldn't sleep. Isn't that crazy? Even with Tylenol PM? Anyway, I was up every hour. And finally, at about 2:00, I realized that I was not going to be able to sleep anyway because the wind was blowing like crazy. I had just received a weather text from TWC indicating that we were under a "high wind warning". I wasn't really worried. We have very few trees in our fairly new neighborhood and it didn't seem too bad. But then I started to worry about my grandparents. They live in an old neighborhood with one of the oldest trees in Walnut Ridge in their front yard. That tree has to be over 6 or 7 feet in diameter. Just one limb falling from that tree could obliterate their house. I prayed hard over it and tried to sleep some more.

We were up and down for the next few hours watching the lights flicker and listening to the creak of every piece of wood in our house. It made me quite uneasy. At 5:30, it seemed that our electricity was gone for good. We rode out the rest of the morning a little stuffy, trying to catch a few more winks. I did get to have a really good dream where I got to tell someone I don't particularly like how much I don't like them. It was a very therapeutic dream ;)

At 7:00, daylight called and we rolled out of bed to survey any damage in our yard. Our yard seemed clear. Then Rob's dad called to tell us that a tree in my mom's yard (actually it was just about at our property line with hers) had been uprooted. As I said, trees are few in our neighborhood and this one was easily one of the biggest we had--a beautiful weeping willow that had become known as "the secret tree" to my children and their Nanny. We were glad no one was hurt, but we were all a bit sad to lose an old friend.

We spent the rest of the morning without power. Most of the town was without power and we called off services at our small church because we had no power there, either. Seems that all of the power crews were deployed to Texas this week (including my brother) and only a skeleton crew was left behind here in Arkansas. Needless the say, the power companies were not prepared for the amount of damage here and, honestly, they were most needed in the more devastated state of Texas.

Being without power, however, was a true blessing. There were no TVs and no internet. We ate french toast (we never have french toast). We opened the windows and let the now gentle and cool breeze blow through our house. We went for a stroller ride and then a car ride around town to see the rest of the damage. We ate lunch with friends at a restaurant in Pocahontas that had power and came home to find our electricity was on. The entire family came to see the tree cut apart. It was sad, but it was such a good day.

The winds were, of course, the remnants of Ike passing over Arkansas and, I heard they were considered a "tropical depression" as they moved through. Maybe the winds were enough to blow my threatening "depression" away. Maybe God knew just what I needed. I sure hope so.

**Here are some picture of the secret tree. The picture at the beginning of the post was from about two years ago**

**And BTW, my retail therapy resulted in an adorable furry little brown dress coat and hat for Avery at TJMaxx and some pumkins and pedestals for my mantle. Watch for pictures! They are both brag worthy**