By Ralphine Major
It played out like a carefully orchestrated event with each participant making their entrance on cue. A look to the sky saw rain clouds announcing that a storm was approaching. Before long, it came. The wind and rain marched in sounding much like the ocean rushing to shore. I looked out to see the wind whipping the tops of towering trees and huge limbs falling all around. About the time a rumble of thunder made her presence known, it happened. We lost power. I began, yet again, writing by lantern light.
In an instant my mind raced back to a similar time. It was the last week in June three years ago when severe storms paralyzed our area. Our power was out for three nights and four days. I remember it well. I was writing my regular column, “The Legacy of Chet Lives On” for publication prior to the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society meeting in July. I was also doing write-ups on my phone interviews with James Drury (“The Virginian at Shiloh Ranch”) and Robert Fuller (“Jess Harper of ‘Laramie’”). Focus readers may remember when the cowboy legends from Hollywood “Moseyed into Morristown” for the Western Legends Festival. With no light and no computer, I wrote all three stories by a battery-operated lantern and made daily trips to Knox County’s Fountain City Branch Library to type them up and submit to the editor.
As I write this piece, I hear the sound of heavy equipment in the distance working to restore power. News reports tell that around 36,000 were without power at one point. At daybreak, all had been restored except for about 5,000. We were part of the 5,000 still without power after nearly 18 hours. Looking out at the calm after the storm, I was reminded of the “storms of life” that often challenge us. The source of our “power” when struggles befall us is the Creator of this vast universe. Just as the magnificent eagle rises above the storm with its powerful wings, so can we. “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31 (KJV).
