The Perfect Storm

Do you know what a perfect storm is?  It's a combination of rare or unlikely circumstances that come together to aggravate a situation and provide a catalyst for change.  I've had lots of perfect storms in my life...enough to be able to fairly accurately predict when they're coming and enough to know that they hurt, but that they're worth it.  I've learned to be calm in the midst of them and to be grateful for them, because after they leave, there is always peace, comfort and bluer skies.   I knew this one was coming.  I prayed for it.  I just didn't know when or how it would happen.  

This was my favorite Conference talk last April.  Jeffrey R. Holland Laborers in the Vineyard

I love Elder Holland.  (Next to President Eyring, he is my favorite, so I think I allow my ears to be a little more open when I hear those two men speak.)  Two Sundays ago, someone gave this same talk in Sacrament, almost verbatim...so I listened...again.  Last Sunday, in Ward Council, or BYC or one of the meetings I attended, the Bishop quoted part of it again.  (You know how I feel about stuff that comes repeatedly...especially in threes.)  Monday morning was blah...really blah...like that feeling when you want to go somewhere but you don't have anywhere to go...restless, achy, caged.  The Scout Master offered to pick up Flowering Buttercup from driver's ed since I was feeling not like myself.  Doesn't sound like much of a storm, huh?  Certainly not perfect...totally meaningless, seemingly unrelated events by themselves, but together...

This post doesn't make any sense, I'm sure.  It's not supposed to.  I'm writing it because it makes sense to me, and so that I don't forget.  So that in a few months or years or whenever I start thinking that no one is aware of me and I don't matter, I can read this again and remember that that is so far from the truth.  So that I don't have to pray for another perfect storm.  So that I remember what it feels like to be carrying something heavier than I can manage and what it feels like to finally give it to someone else.  I am overwhelmingly grateful for storms, for hope, for strength from somewhere beyond me, and especially for the Scout Master.  He is patient, kind, understanding and supportive even when he doesn't have to be. I totally don't deserve that man.