OTWOMD | Bluepanjeet.Net

Two storms have passed my time of being alone. The first one ransacked my home on the last week of September. The Hurricane Xangse (Milenyo in Philippine Area of Responsibility) flooded three of our rooms in the house, the kitchen the living room, virtually everything that has windows installed in it. It has razed my computer monitor and CPU, soaked my books wet, rendered my shirts as improvised sponges and displaced every appliance inside our house. It tossed my dogs’ houses and kennels, obliterated every flower, stem and leaves of my mom’s ornamental plants. It destroyed and demolished our wooden fences, antennas, roof drainages, and screen doors. It left no stone-unturned including trees and electric post (of which six were in our street.), caused injuries to wanderers and home bounded families alike.

Alone and with no one to turn to during Milenyo’s Wrath, I could have frozen to death, suffered from hunger or worse, die of extreme helplessness. I was in turmoil when I woke up half naked, standing on a flooded tiled floor and realizing that the house is flooding. I mused in wonderment, trying to get a clue on how the heck did the storm flooded the house, considering that it is situated in a leveled lot, three feet above the ground to be precise.

Then it caught me. The waters are coming from the sliding windows, though tightly locked, but the rainwaters found their way through drainage holes of the aluminum frames. I went out of my room hurriedly to get some rags and mats to bung up the sources of floodwaters. However, to my surprise, all three rooms had the same fate. As if the disaster was not enough, the ravaging wind-driven rain flooded even the kitchen. I instinctively used my critical thinking as a nurse as to what part of the house should I prioritize first. Having the first impulse, I immediately went from one room to another to control the flooding waters. But as I leave one room to clean the other, the waters rose almost twice as fast as the oil price hike. For 6 hours, all I was doing was soak, wrinkle and wipe. Until my sister came from next door and helped me control the uncontrollable. Soon the flooding stopped, the storm ceased and the wind weakened. Seeing the devastation of the storm was definitely a depressing experience. I thought the storm’s lashes were thru, but the aftermath was worse. For two weeks, we had no electricity. I could stand the day without electricity but the night was filled with loneliness. Only the flickering flames from the candle were my constant assurance of companionship. As the day engulfed by the looming night, the loneliness of being alone was too unbearable. Nonetheless, I have fought back with coping mechanisms and practical measures to shorten my day. The first storm ended. Physically drained, mentally distraught, emotionally incapacitated and financially red; these were the aftermath. The blue sky appeared after the storm.

The second storm of my being alone just happened two days ago. International Hurricane named “Durian” entered the PAR as Reming. This time, it is more powerful than the first typhoon with winds up to 190 kph, and who knows what will make it stop from increasing its speed and force. Having been warned earlier by the news (it really pays off to read the inquirer and watch the news), I prepared for the second attack of nature — which was for me, a second attack on my existence of being alone. Smart-ass as I am, I prepared quite meticulously for Reming’s coming. I bought batteries and cooked the frozen foods that would spoil in case the power fails again. I moved the plants inside the warehouse, tied every thing that are blow-prone and gathered all my dogs in one place, securing them a shelter. I moved the furniture away from the windows, clogging the window drainages with rags as to stop the water before they can eventually flood the house and charging my cell phone and rechargeable lamps. Moving to higher ground some appliances and gadgets that might be soaked wet, I also purchased a good number of cigarettes as my way to buffer myself in case my anxiety level and panicky archetype starts to manifest.

After doing everything as planned, I bathed and freshened up, cooked my dinner early and turned the TV on for news update while I simultaneously monitor the storm’s track in the internet via satellite image. Between 6 to 7 pm, the storm was already in Naga coming to neighboring Daet. Few more hours and the welcoming party for Reming commenced. The Electricity flickered continuously for 30 minutes. I got the cue. The storm is near. I turned off all the appliances, locked all the doors, shut the windows, and went to bed as I waited for the storm’s coming.

Few moments later, everything was pitched black, the noise outside was like howling phantoms and hobgoblins and the windows all over are being rattled by the force of the wind seemingly saying that “She’s here!”. As the winds blew stronger and stronger, I turned my MP3 on and drowned the very disturbing sound of the wind with the music, constantly playing in my eardrums. I also entertained some SMS messages just to kill time and escape the reality of what was happening outside. However, the decibels coming from my earphones were no match for the wrath of Reming. The howling wind was so loud and the force was more violent than before. It was 10 pm and the peak of the storm began. I know inside myself that I have prepared everything but I soon realized that there was something lacking, something that I failed to prepare; my faith.

I began to tremble in fear. In the darkness of the room were I lie, constant fear gradually ate me. I remembered the reminder in the news that glass windows should be plastered with package tape so as not to shatter in case the wind forcefully breaks through it and that most of the roofs of mansions in Naga were blown away. I tried to ignore the fear of being found in the morning pierced all over with broken glasses or waking up with no ceiling at the top of my head, telling myself to have faith that all will come to pass safely. Nevertheless, the haunting howl of the wind and rain make me jump out of bed and spent hours of waiting for the storm to end in the living room.

Smoking with my right hand while holding my cell phone in my lefty, there and then I realized that I have to pray. Yup I prayed that the “great schemer of things” would spare everyone along the path of the storm. In the midst of my conscious fear, my anxiety came. This was the second time that I spent time all by myself in the midst of a storm. And with that thought, it was enough to stir once again the tremendous loneliness inside me which the milieu offered me at that time. With no one sending any Message in my SMS, I texted my mom and dad in the US, and told them everything that was happening to me at that very moment. With all the SMS that my parents and I exchanged that night, the most comforting for me was their message saying “matulog ka na. walang mangyayaring masama. (sleep now. Nothing terrible will happen. Just pray”. Reading it from two people who nurtured me for years was enough to eradicate all my fears and anxieties. It was so reassuring that upon sending my last reply, I slept instantly as if everything became calm even though the weather outside was horrendously feisty.

How many times did we experience storms in our life, metaphorically and literally speaking of course? We fall, blown away, soaked wet, stumbled upon, flooded, avalanched, washed away, landslides and mudslides, impassable, zero visible, cycloned, typhooned, hurricaned, whirl winded, tossed, turned to and fro, under, beneath, over and above, slammed, shaken, trembled, terrorized, in a gist: stormed! No matter the form and shape, the expression and realization, hurdles of unsurmountable wake up calls triggered us all.

Life indeed is a journey. We go from place to place, stages upon stages, phases and paces, and yet no matter how hard we escape, there is the unavoidable storm that comes our way. The day could have been perfect, but NO! The storm always ruins the momentum: the moment is gone… waiting helplessly and hopelessly to end as you linger… but time is longer when one is aware of it.

Life has many storms along the way. It is made up of challenges in all spheres of the human being imaginable; that is, worthy to note, a rude awakening for all of us. Milenyo and Reming are just part of the super typhoons that would befall our lifetime, to say the least, in the mere natural level of our existence. Storms that made my knees bend are not in the form of winds nor rains. It is my personal storms that come as a more powerful force, which usually hit me where I should be, made me fall to the ground and crawl in my belly. Darkness fills me and I always wait in vain for the light to shine again. But as certain as the setting sun, life after the storm is preceded by blue skies, seemingly announcing that tomorrow’s chance is an opportunity of growth and learning from past mistakes. Blue skies are God’s way of telling us that life indeed after the storm promises a new tomorrow. A hope filled future and a new beginning. Yet, the same storm will keep on coming until we finally learn how to deal and live with it. It actually comes in threes…

First is a wake up call, telling you on what you are missing; where you are now and what you are in the present moment. Second is a hands-on training, much stronger than the latter, giving you the chance to elevate the strength you acquired in battling with the first blow. And the third is the Final stage or the storm test, the most powerful and devastating storm that could come your way, testing your faith and will to survive the final blow and then be free from the darkness of that specific tempest.

But what happens if you never survived the three storms? Then God will send you the same storm repeatedly. Until you finally learn from it and survive it. Ever wonder why you feel that sometimes your problems are the same thing and happening over and over again? That explains why.

And you thought God doesn’t watch trilogies? He does and this time it is your story, your own movie: he awaits the third and final installment of your storm, test, trials, typhoons or whatever you may call it. And he watches you from above on how you fair with the battle as the much awaited ending of your Rosing, Milenyo and Reming would pass. It is actually up to us how we turn things around. But no matter how we fair in our personal storms in life, he always send us unending BLUE SKIES after every storm ceases… And often than not it comes in threes, the blue sky trilogy (not the cracker of course!).