icestormArticle Highlights:

  • Big Oklahoma Ice Storm
  • A silver lining
  • A prayer for these times

Greetings from the frozen South,

Actually the cold front has passed but here in Oklahoma City we recently experienced a four day ice storm of enough severity to put more than 300,000 homes out of power and leave many many tons of trees and branches blocking yards roadways and drives, and thousands of downed power lines.

4,000 workers from 25 states have spent long hours, both during the storm and since, to restore power and clear lines and roads. It didn’t make the news because of all the pre-election coverage, but it was crisis mode here for a while. I’m including a few pictures of the ice, so beautiful even if causing such havoc.

Im writing on November 11th, my 18th day without heat and electricity. However, I’m hopeful the electrician will be able to get to my place today to repair the power box and connections on the house that were damaged in the storm. Then the power company can come back and complete their work. Everyone is doing everything they can but the demand on electricians and repair workers etc. have, of course, been enormous.

It’s likely I’ll have power within 4-5 days. The storm started October 25th. It was most of five days before the freezing rains and winds died down and it became safer to asses the aftermath.

I feel lucky though, because while it was often dramatic, sometimes concerning and generally unsettling and inconvenient, there hasn’t been loss of life and I’ve been beautifully supported by neighbors and friends throughout. Many people have suffered property damage from winds and fallen trees and limbs, so prayers for all who will continue to face difficulties for some time.

While it hasn’t always been easy, in important ways it has even been good for me. There is often a silver lining of sorts in natural disasters, isn’t there? It’s in the way people come together and support one another.

Living in Oklahoma City, a less familiar place to me with fewer people that I know well nearby, and having the COVID isolation ongoing, I didn’t realize that in a deeper way I felt a little vulnerable not having as many friends and family closer.

Community is so important to a feeling of peace and physical security, isn’t? It’s good to remember that we rely on one another. And to know that we can count on it. It’s such an important thing to know for our sense of well being. Thank you Oklahoma City for proving this true to me!

So this article is primarily to say thank you to Anne Dorsey and others who provided another friend and I a few nights in nice hotel rooms while the storm raged. And thank you to Oklahoma locals Pat Web, Debbye Scroggins and Judi Rider who provided me with places to stay when they had power. How grateful I am for the ease with which both the necessities and the niceties have found me over these weeks.

Because there are a couple blogs ahead of this one in my blog queue, please note that by the time this article reaches you, I’ll be back at home with utilities restored, the storm having happened well before Halloween. And know also that the skies have cleared and temperatures have risen again and we are having lovely fall weather.

So all is well now and I just wanted to thank those who were so supportive and thoughtful to me. I know that, had I been able to or needed to put the notice here on my blog sooner you would have cared too and I thank you for your shepherd’s heart and the goodness of your beautiful caring soul. It is appreciated by so many throughout your life.

Throughout all this there have been serious wildfires in California, hurricane notices for Louisiana and parts east, typhoons in the Philippines and Asia, and a turbulent election aftermath weathered in the U.S.

May we all come together in our hearts and prayers, bonding in our similarities. May we bring an end to the dangerous separation caused by apparent and illusive differences. We all need one another, and it is only in the deeper allowance of this understanding that real Oneness and the peace that passes understanding can be fulfilled. May we turn away from what matters so little over time and be united in the core principles of better human livings. That is my prayer.

I’m sending blessings and much love and gratitude to all,
Especially you,
Ma HuLiLi

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