Coping

I stumbled on this good read today about the 1984 Barneveld tornado.

I'm always fascinated by stories of the Barneveld tornado. Part of it's that I lived not too far from the town in those years and remember reading about it in the newspaper way back then. Part of it's the journalist in me, always being drawn to stories of tragedy and triumph.

The story struck me particularly this week, as I deal with the post traumatic stress of last week, not to mention all the chaos and emotions of the last few weeks and months. Even while I haven't been directly impacted by a lot of it, all of it affects me.

Yesterday I sort of snapped. With all of the responsibilities and pressures I put on myself piling up, I started feeling suffocated. A cartoon I posted for Father's Day last year keeps coming back to me... I went on a cleaning rampage, looking for an escape.

It happens. In my demanding line of work, I've come to recognize the symptoms well over the years. Eventually, something always clicks, I find a reset mechanism, take a deep breath and settle back in.

And life goes on.