How do you weather the storms of life?

There has been a lot of news lately about the weather and how it’s affecting people. There are storms and hurricanes that happen in the atmosphere. That can be a metaphor for the storms and challenges that happen to most of us in our life. We call these challenges, “life storms”. Our hearts go out to all those affected by hurricanes and other natural disasters and all who have faced the challenges of “life storms”. We wanted to learn more about atmospheric storms and also how people weather their “life storms”.
To learn more about atmospheric storms, we went to the National Weather Service in Chanhassen. Here’s what Alexandra Keclik, Meteorologist, said when asked how to predict weather, “We look at what’s going on here right now, not only in our location, but we also look at what’s going on farther west, that will affect our weather later on. Then we look at the temperatures, dew points and winds and we have weather models that give us an idea of what we can expect to happen. It’s not always what happens but it gives us a certain confidence level. I’m glad I can be here to help everyone be safe and get those warnings out if there is severe weather.”
We also met Joe Calderone, Senior Forecaster. We asked him to tell us about the weather balloons. He said, “We are one of about ninety weather offices that launch these weather balloons. We normally do them every day at 6:00 am and 6:00 pm. We do this so we can get upper air data into our models.” He explained that, attached to the balloon, is an instrumentation pack with a circuit board inside. These have sensors that measure the temperatures, moisture levels and wind speed data as the balloon ascends. “There’s a transmitter that allows it to be GPS tracked to know where it is. Data is transmitted in real time and goes into the models and that way it improves the forecast. We were doing support for Hurricane Irma and doing balloon launches four times a day. This way, more of that data can get into the models to improve them for the hurricane forecasters. We can do that for severe weather, as well.” We thanked him for being there round-the-clock for us and he replied, “That’s what we do. We are here 24/7 and 365 [days a year].”
Now we were interested to see what Alexandra and Joe would tell us about how they weathered their individual “life storms”.
Alexandra shared, “It’s kind of like preparing for an actual thunderstorm. Be prepared, have a positive mentality and don’t panic. Because when you panic, you don’t think straight. In a thunderstorm you may not follow the right precautions; just like in the storms of life, you might not make the right decisions. So just remain positive and try to think that after the storm, there will be sunshine again.”
When we asked Joe how he handles his “life storms”, he answered, “I’ve learned that you have to depend on yourself as much as others. At some point you are going to realize that you don’t know how strong you can be, until you have to be. You don’t know what you can do unless you are put in situations where you really have to [do it]. Eventually, you get to that point of knowing, ‘I can do this, I know what I’m capable of.’ There are lots of lessons you learn in life. You get beat down and you figure it out. Eventually, when you know it, you can accomplish things. It makes life worth living.”
From talking to Alexandra and Joe, we learned more about atmospheric weather and how they make predictions. They also shared their techniques on how they handle their personal “life storms”. What about you? What “life storms” are you facing? We encourage you to let us know how you have weathered your “life storms”.
Here’s a challenge: There’s a saying, “The storms of life prove the strength of our anchors.” So, use your anchors of faith, family, friends and even helpful strangers who step in to assist. Also, know that “rainbows” will follow the challenges of your “life storms”. Notice how people involved in floods, hurricanes and earthquakes all unite and pull together to help each other. There are important life lessons here. Don’t wait for storms to happen, let’s start now to be more helpful to each other and make our community and the world a more caring place.
Chanhassen residents Doug and Lynn Nodland are Success Coaches and owners of The Balance Center. They can be contacted at WeCare@SharingLifesLessons.com

© Doug and Lynn Nodland 2017 Articles and videos may be shared in their entirety with attribution.