It is severe weather season in Oklahoma where I live. Every year around this time, the daily weather report comes out and usually contains a heads-up warning of when to be weather-aware for impending storms that may produce dangerous conditions.

The days leading up to the storms are filled with anticipation, mostly from the meteorologists and storm chasers. They are amped and ready to go. Eventually, the conditions develop and the minute-to-minute coverage begins.

As the storms start to spark up to my southwest, I take the tv off of mute and watch, listening for any signs danger is heading my way. I stop scrolling Facebook and instead jump back and forth between the national Mesonet radar and news channel radars on my phone. Rarely does “the” storm come through my neighborhood. In fact, it hasn’t happened yet.

But the activity and hype certainly dominates my time. Family group text and random texts from friends are filled with check-ins and commentary on the weather reporting. All is a buzz for the few hours leading up to the storm front blowing through. Coverage lasts until the storms pass the viewing area and move on to the next news station and the next set of people who are just starting the process I am finishing up.

And then there is the lull after the storm. It is an eerie quietness – the tv is put back on mute, the texts die down almost from exhaustion, and I suddenly realize it is 11pm and I haven’t had dinner.

This happens in the course of our lives too, and I am not talking about weather. We start to see the signs of burnout, mental stress, and circumstances all pointing to the conditions needed for a potentially dangerous situation (PDS as our weathermen like to call it). Sometimes it hits us out of the blue but as we get wiser to the symptoms and we keep our eye on the radar of our lives, we can prepare that safe spot to go to and ride out the storm.

Last week was a PDS for me. Days prior, I received a new assignment for cleaning up a work project that was in addition to my 8 other projects, knowing 3 of them were needing to be finished by the end of the week. It was the final week of public accounting busy season. All the indicators of stress and mental struggle were showing in the disarray of my house and building up laundry and dishes. Friends and family were reaching out about impending crisis and wanting my input.

I weathered the storm. I shifted my energy into writing and produced five days of content that had been held inside for a long time. I stayed focus on my work tasks and gave myself grace on the housework. I kept going to therapy to offload everything that was happening. My mental health safe spot was ready and equipped with everything I needed.

You may have noticed I didn’t post anything this week. And I think there is a good reason for that. I think the lull after the storm is just as necessary as all the activity that happens when the storm is raging. We use it to pick up the pieces and process. And that is exactly what I did.

I have refocused and reorganized my work to do list. I have adjusted to the decrease in hours that will remain until the next busy season. I pulled out the trash bags and the vacuum cleaner, loaded the dishwasher and gathered the laundry. I checked my mailbox and opened my daily planner again.

I am not sure when the next round of storms is coming but I am ready. What I do know is out of every storm comes inspiration to do more and do better the next time. I truly hope I keep the motivation to fulfill those inspired thoughts. “Stay weather-aware” has taken on a whole new meaning for me now.