Yesterday was one of those days.

One of those days that starts off like other days until something you never saw coming happens and everything shifts and then it becomes a day you will never forget.

A day that defines other days and becomes a reference point.

What to do for lunch was the thing on my mind when I heard “The Noise.”

It was a noise I can only describe as a big commercial truck bouncing, which was partially right. I heard the noise and felt the house shake and shake and shake. I was about to retreat to a doorway when I remembered I was not in California and this was probably not an earthquake, although that was as close as I could come to what was going on.

A minute passed and everything seemed to settle down. I went about my cleaning wondering what THAT was all about and figuring I would never really know, when my husband came barreling down the stairs and proclaimed in his “business tone” “We have a problem.”

“The problem” was a semi truck (that was not permitted down our residential street due to clearance issues—low branches, low wires, street side parking) had made its way down our street nevertheless and had caught one of the low hanging branches on our 560 year old Live Oak tree. Instead of stopping when he was not able to clear it, the driver had pushed through ripping the branch (which weighs several hundred pounds) off of the tree sending it crashing down below.

All of the noise and banging was the branch being ripped from the tree, crashing into other branches, destroying part of our historic iron fence and smashing my car.

It was a disaster.

I could not believe what I was seeing when I walked out of the door. It was like an explosion had taken place on our street.

A few weeks ago the city came and trimmed back a branch that was hanging over the sidewalk. It was dangerous they said and we agreed. Cutting that small branch however, set me into a real funk. I was afraid the tree was injured and irritated (irrationally so) that once again nature was sacrificed for the convenience of man. So you can imagine my feelings upon walking out and seeing the entire street covered with tree debris.

I was beside myself. Although I must say I did not let it show.

Nobody was hurt and I know that is the most important thing. The fence can be fixed, the car repaired (hopefully) and that is all that really matters.

But the tree. The tree. The tree.

That is what hurts my heart. My amazing tree that wants nothing more than to live and grow where it took root hundreds of years ago, my tree that did nothing wrong, my tree which I love and vowed to protect, was missing a limb on my watch.

A huge team of people descended on the area. Neighbors, five or six police cars, city inspectors, a clean up crew. Reports were taken, the street blocked, chainsaws and front loaders started, dump truck positioned and in an hour it was as if nothing had ever happened.

Except it had.

One of the people who showed up was an arborist who assured me that to a tree this size, losing a limb the size of the one lost is really not that big of a deal. He pointed out areas where other limbs had been lost over the life of the tree, how it had healed and continued on. He pointed out all of the leaves growing on the ends, signs of health and vitality.

I felt reassured but was still upset.

I was so very thankful that no one was on the sidewalk when the branch came down. I was getting groceries out of the back of my car just an hour before and probably would not have survived had the branch hit me not to mention anyone else who could have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. And of all the cars parked on the street mine was the only one hit, which to me, is a good thing.

However, the upset feeling persisted.

“I am trying so hard to put a positive spin on things” I told my husband as we took stock “I am trying to find the lesson but sometimes things just suck.”

We went out to dinner because….why not. It was a sports bar type restaurant with TVs on every wall. One of the stations was tuned to the news and there was my lesson.

Tornado coverage from Nashville.

People standing next to the complete wreckage of their lives.

That was my cue to be thankful and humble and try (although it is hard) to let go of the irritation and anger and the “Why me?”

Replaying all of the events again today, because that is what I tend to do, I realize that there are several lessons to be learned from it all. Please bear with me as this is probably not the last you will hear of it. But for this moment, corny as it sounds, I am realizing things could have been a whole lot worse and I am thankful it was not.

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