Howdy, Bubba! Hey, if you're new around these parts, I just want to say how much I appreciate you dropping by! Oh, and you may want to subscribe to my feed. Thanks, and a tip o' the hat to ya!

[Note from the Proprietor: Yet another entry for this month's groupwrite project, What I Learned From Stress. If you'd like to join us, see the end of this post.]

[Further note from the Proprietor: I realize that for regular readers, the Middle Zone has seemed, over the last few weeks, to be something of an "all Ike, all the time" channel. But heck, when an event that ginormous (that's pronounced "jy-NOR-mus", and means humongous, except bigger) comes along, it can't help but reveal a veritable barn full of great lessons for life! So if you would, please bear with us just a teeny bit longer; we ain't - quite - finished yet.]

I was on my way home from work the other day, and as I passed a large, heavily wooded area next to the freeway, I noticed something kinda odd. Nearly all the trees are turning seriously brown, as if they’re suddenly dying or something.

It couldn’t be a lack of water - hey, we just got thoroughly dumped on by Hurricane Ike. And it hasn’t been that hot lately, so all the ponds, lakes and reservoirs in the area are still full.

At first, I thought it might be an amazingly widespread attack of pine beetle or something. But no, in our neck of the woods, while the trees are mostly pines, there are oaks and other stuff mixed in there, too. And they all exhibit the same overall “brown-ness”. So what’s going on?

As it turns out, it’s yet another thing we can blame on Hurricane Ike.

Sheesh, that list is gettin’ pretty long. (No power? Blame it on Ike. Tree fell on the house? It’s Ike. House got flooded - Ike. Place of business sorta blew away - Ike. Made a mistake on that big account, lost the dog, or developed acne? Yup; that would be Ike, Ike, and Ike. But I digress.)

Anyway, it turns out it’s the trees’ way of coping with the damage done by the high winds. What we’re seeing are all the limbs, branches and leaves that were broken by the winds, but didn’t separate and fall to the ground. And believe me, there’s a whole herd of ‘em! As you ca see on the pine trees, I’d say it’s probably at least 25% (or more in some spots).

See, even if it doesn’t get, you know, blown away, once a leaf or a branch is broken, over a period of days it still dies and turns brown. Eventually, normal, everyday winds will be enough to cause it to finally come off the tree and fall, and voila! the tree is green again! See? No problem! Works nicely that way, don’t you think?

The Old and the New

Hey, you remember that banana plant I showed you about a week ago in Are You Resilient? I’m tellin’ ya, those guys are growing like crazy! Believe it or not, already most have put out one, two or even three new leaves! And believe me, the new ones really stand out from the tired, tattered ones that were left over from Ike.

It got me to thinkin’, though (in case you’re wondering what that gosh-awful noise was); those banana plants are great illustrations of… crisis and restoration.

See, before the storm came along, all those plants were growing like weeds, poppin’ out leaves right and left. And right alongside the main stalks, younger plants of every size were shootin’ up like rockets - you could almost see ‘em growing. I’m tellin’ ya; our back yard looked like a veritable jungle! (sound of Tarzan yell)

Then the winds came along, and just about everything above the fence line (and some things lower down, too) were totally shredded to pieces. Some of the larger banana plants even, well, folded over in defeat, and all the remaining ones look like they’ve been through a war. I guess in a way, they have.

Now they exhibit an interesting dichotomy. There’s the old, straggly leaves - looking like green fringe on a stem, and gradually turning a sickly brown. But there are also the new, fresh leaves - already unfurling their faces towards the sky as if to rejoice in their newness.

See? Crisis… and restoration.

Now, we’ve got several interesting lessons here, so let’s get to them, shall we?

Survival means weathering the storms of life

The sad truth is, life is just chock full of tough times, ain’t it? And Bubba, we’ve all been there (sound of sobbing). In fact, it’s not a question of if, but when the storms will show up at your door, or how hard they’ll blow. And here’s a hard fact for ya: There’s nothing we can do to prevent them from coming! And just to be clear on that, I’ll repeat it: That’s nuttin’, Bubba!

Nope; our responsibility is to be as prepared as we can. Here’s a quick, and very simplistic example - regarding personal financial responsibility: don’t spend more than you earn! You may be setting yourself up for failure if you owe more than you own. Simple, right? Fairly unambiguous, wouldn’t you agree? Yet how many people you know live that way? (Note: Mrs. MZM and I have lived with zero debt for over 26 years. It sure makes things easier! For instance, it makes the current credit crunch a non-issue, I’ll tell ya.)

After survival, it’s time to choose your direction

I don’t know about you, but there has certainly been a time or two when, after surviving a crisis, I came to realize it’s time to hang it up and move on to something else. That’s one thing a crisis does: it make you aware that, once it’s over and everything’s calmed down, it’s time to sit down, examine where you stand, and well, clear some things up a mite.

Should you continue on your present course, or is it time to reconsider your options and pick a different direction? Is it time to rebuild, reinforce, reboot? These are all questions that a serious crisis will hopefully cause you to think about. Don’t miss the chance for introspection, friends; it’s worth the effort in the long run.

Change doesn’t happen all at once

Well, not usually. Besides, big, honkin’ change may not necessarily be the right way to go. After all, even if it’s a given that it’s time for a change, most times you’ll probably still do some of the old things right alongside the new things, right? I mean, for some folks it’s bad enough that the c-word was even uttered in their presence (sound of terrified screaming). But turning their entire world upside down all at once is generally far too traumatic for most people - or most organizations, for that matter.

Naah; the best way to handle a major change is to phase it in gradually (understanding, of course, that the term gradually is relative to the change involved; I mean, you don’t eat that pig all at once, you know).

Growth is an imperative

When planted, those banana plants were essentially just sticks in the ground. But given time and good soil, they multiplied into a jungle. And each plant has produced anywhere from 5 to 10 little ones (and by now, not so little) plants, bunched all around the parent. In reality though, what looks like a bunch of plants is actually just one large one.

I’ll tell ya; if it hadn’t been for the fact that there were already so many offspring from the parent plants, after that blow, we’d probably have NO plants left! If they hadn’t grown like crazy, they would have never survived the storm.

Get it? Grow? Survive? Storm? Oh, never mind.

Reader Instructions: Insert Your Point Here

Now, since we’re in the middle of this month’s WILF, and the topic is What I Learned From Stress, I’m throwing the forum open here (sound of forum being thrown… er, open).

So what principles have you discovered about life during times of stress and crisis? (I’m going out on a limb here; I’m assuming you’ve experience one or two of these sometime in your life.) Hey, maybe you’re in the midst of one now (sorry ‘bout that)? What have you learned so far? What about this - has anyone you know ever shared a gem or two from their own experiences with you? Would you do us the honor of sharing it here?

We’d love to hear from you!

[As mentioned above, this is another entry in this month's groupwrite project, What I Learned From Stress. The truth is, we'd love to have you join us, this month and pretty much every month. So if you're interested, just click on that cute little link there and read all about it. Trust me; you'll be glad you did - and we will too!]

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