Tornado Dreams

I always know that I'm feeling helpless about something in my life when I start having tornado dreams. In the dream, I'm in a house or a car and I see a tornado coming. There is absolutely nothing I can do to get out of the way. So, I just hunker down and hope it will go away.

I think I have these dreams because to me, tornadoes are the scariest natural phenomena. You can't get away from them...the only thing you can do is get into a basement or a doorway or something. With flooding and hurricanes you can evacuate way ahead of time, and lightning can pretty much be avoided by staying out of open areas. But tornadoes....they're unpredictable.

The closest I've ever come to being near a tornado was at Beach Project with Campus Outreach one year. It was a stormy afternoon, and one of my roommates looked down the street and saw a tornado coming up Ocean Blvd. She and I ran downstairs and went into a friends' room. We were trying to find the most stable place in the hotel, so we got into the bathtub (remember this, Deanna?). Everyone was laughing at us, but we felt safe. :) At the time, I felt so helpless. If a tornado decides to hit, there is nothing you can do.

There are a couple of situations in my life right now where I feel helpless. Some have to do with interpersonal relationships, some with work, some with my "extracurricular activities", and some with completely unrelated things- like random dentist office bills that you don't really owe! All in all though, feeling helpless is beneficial to me. It causes me to pray more, and to not be such a control freak! It's definitely a hard spot to be in, however.

When I feel stressed and helpless, another thing that helps is running. Since I'm known as the "lazy runner" I know that if I'm craving a run I must be stressed! My past 2 runs have been great stress relievers and relaxers. I've been running hard, and each time my foot hits the pavement I feel a little bit more tension drain out of me. It's times like these that I am thankful for my ability to run, no matter how slow I am!