One Boda Boda guy clearly in a world of his own, just madly raced on the uneven side-walk, with some high-pitched Taarab song blaring in the background; you should have seen the look on some pedestrians who had to move out of the way for him. Another guy "driving" a Bajaji passes us on the right then stops not far from us after seeing a traffic cop. This Bajaji, a.k.a Tuk Tuk, catches my attention because inside, it has a mini-TV and from the sound of things in there, it is obvious it also has a good sound system. And guess what song is playing? Gangnam Style! I watch all these things happening and I am seriously amused to the point of bursting into laughter. Obviously this startles my driver who almost knocks the car in front, which for some reason causes more ripples of laughter. It's been a long Monday and laughing is my way of unwinding. 

 

Anyway, as we slowly crawl along the road, I see some lightening and immediately in my heart I pray that the sky doesn't open while we are still on the road. I get tired of looking at the road and decide to close my eyes to relax them after being on my MacBook Pro (but do I say!) for 10 hours straight. I don't know why but suddenly my mind goes to Super Storm Sandy and I begin to think of all the crazy damage she did; that was one angry "Female". Whatever they did to "her", I wonder whether we will ever know.

 

If you were following the updates, you must have seen the things this storm did. It threw big cities into darkness, made enough people homeless, killed some along the way, brought all manner of debris and dumped them in places they shouldn't have been in the first place; I even remember seeing a huge vessel which was carried almost 2Kms and dumped on a private beach! It was a scaring experience for all the victims and also those watching it from a distance. Not that I didn't before, but now my respect for water has increased after seeing some of those harrowing images and listening to some of the victims narrating their experiences at the hands of Sandy.    

 

 

To say the least, Sandy left a lot of people in desperation and confusion and it will take them a long time to get back to normalcy, but one thing is for sure, that the mark of Sandy's wrath will forever be etched in their memories.

 

Just like with Super Storm Sandy, whenever we go through a storm in life it must leave a mark on us, but how we choose to handle it is what really matters.

 

Storms come in many forms; sickness in the family; could be loss of a job; loss of a loved one; flopping business; friends turned frenemies; a broken marriage or relationship; bankruptcy; drowning in debts; business partners who are complete opportunists, etc. Life has too many storms to enumerate them all. Regardless of the kind of storm one thing is for sure; No storm is easy to deal with.

 

Storms have a way of bringing in unwanted debris into our lives that we have to clean up after the storm passes. Sometimes the debris causes so much damage that besides cleaning up, we have to rebuild what has been broken. For instance, a cheating spouse is caught in the act. How does the cheated one react? Sometimes the situation may be so bad that they might be forced to separate to give room for healing, before restoration can begin. It is a tough situation to be in and if not dealt with carefully, a lot of people can be hurt along the way, especially if there are children involved.

 

If you are running a business like I am, then I am sure while in business you must have encountered many storms. If I may give a real life example, a few weeks ago my company had the chance of doing some work for a person we thought was a friend. We went out of our way to help this person handle a project they were starting up, but besides that we also created a kick-ass brand for them. To cut a long story short, after doing everything we did we were swindled out of our money. The painful part is that people had warned me about dealing with this person, but I chose to give the benefit of a doubt and not judge them. Now that this has happened, I don't know how to deal with the person anymore. To me, this has been a storm because needless to say, bridges have been burnt and fences broken. I've always preached forgiveness and letting go of bitterness, and I guess I have to take a dose of my own prescription, which is what I am going to do; letting go and letting God.

 

So how do we deal with storms in our life? Is there a clear guideline? Can Storms be avoided? Those are some of the questions I was asking myself as I was thinking about this whole issue of storms. It is not easy to deal with any kind of a storm, and there is no clear-cut guideline on how to manage them, but the best way to approach its aftermath is by accepting what has happened, and then looking for ways of rebuilding what was broken. Yes some storms are so ferocious to the point of causing death, be it physical death or even emotional or spiritual death. Whatever the case, the first step is in accepting what has happened, then making a decision to move on, and leaving whatever happened behind you. Always remember that no matter how bad things look, they could still be worse.

 

Sometimes, once the storm has passed and you have moved on, you realize the life you have now is better than what you had before the storm. Some storms in life are a blessing in disguise though at the time we might be going through them we don't see them as such. Sometimes the storms in our lives come as a way of teaching us very important lessons that we might have missed if we hadn't gone through the storm. Others come in order to make us tougher in preparation for something bigger and better in our lives. Whatever the case, once you've been through a storm, you are never the same again. The choice is yours though, to be a bitter person or a better person.

 

As we ride on the storms we are going through, or think back to those that we have just passed through, and even in anticipation of those that will most definitely come, here is something we can hang on to:

 

“In our lives there is bound to come some pain, surely as there are storms and falling rain; just believe that the one who holds the storms will bring the sun.”  Author Unknown