in all likelihood. . .

My friend Diana is on for devos tomorrow morning. Today she sent the staff an email asking us to share our fears, since that's her topic. She promised she won't use our names, but mine will probably give itself away since we don't experience many "tornadoes" in the Northwest. (Well, we did have one in Vancouver here a couple months ago.) I listed several natural disasters - tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis - as well as my fear of bridges and being on one when the big one strikes. (I've previously posted about that as you may recall.) Anyway, all this today made me remember that I wanted to blog about tsunamis and post these pictures because Phil knew I was totally going to write this blog and so he watched out for the signs and pulled over to the side of the road so I could take pictures of them. (Yet another reason why I love that man.)

Fear is defined in the good ol' Oxford English dictionary as "an unpleasant emotion caused by exposure to danger, expectation of pain" or "danger, likelihood of something unwelcome." I find that to be very interesting. It's like I'm basically expecting pain or something I don't want, and it keeps me on pins and needles quite often.

Well, I think that my fears are all fairly normal. I mean, I lived in an upstairs apartment, for crying out loud, and I happened to be playing Yahtzee by candle light (because the power was out, not because we normally lit candles for our exciting Yahtzee games) over at Nat & Jamie's when something like an F-5 tornado rolled through Main Street in Ashland. We stood and looked out her window at power lines whipping around, sparking like crazy. When I got home later that night, a big huge tree limb had landed right where I normally parked my car. When I was under the age of four, and my parents had a mobile home at that place on 224 and a tornado smashed both of our neighbors trailors to bits. Ours was fine. (No, I don't really remember that, I've just seen the pictures.) And one other time, a few years back, I was at my grandparent's house in New London and I had to get them both down to the basement. We sat on the couch and I made them hold pillows just in case the basement windows blew in. (Well, they needed some protection, didn't they? This was my Granny Fannie after all.) A few minutes later, there was hail and debris all over the yard and we found out on the news that a tornado had blown through their town.

Obviously God watches out for me. I know that. I'm well aware that He's kept me out of all sorts of problems. He's spared me from many a collision with people who drive like maniacs, for instance, and I haven't been sucked up like Dorothy in some terrible tornado. I'm a firm believer in that whole guardian angel bit as well. But, for those of you, like me, who haven't spent much time along the Oregon Coast, you'll see why my fears of tsunamis are so high. (OK, along with the pictures you'll soon see are the images plastered all over my mind of the tsunami in southeast Asia a few years back. Yes, I read entirely too many news stories on msnbc.com.)

Did you know that schools along the coast have tsunami drills? I remember the days of heading out to the halls, on our knees, arms covering our face and head, butts pointed toward the ceiling for tornado drills. Not on the coast. It's all about briskly walking a whole school full of kids up a mountain to safety. They've shown them on the news. They time the student body to see how long it takes them to get to the designated spot. By the time the underwater earthquake monitors signal an earthquake strong enough to create a tsunami, and then the tsunami warning sirens go off, there isn't much time for a bunch of little kids to make it up the hill. It makes me cringe thinking about it.

Oh, and did you know that I have a special drawer in my classroom right now that holds Earthquake Emergency Kits? Yes, big ziplock bags full of bottled water and juice, granola bars, small containers of fruit, pudding, little packs of tissues, toilet paper, thermal blankets, and such. (And I wonder why I'm so paranoid???)

Picture with me, if you will. You're driving along the beautiful Oregon coast when all of a sudden, you see this. . .

Immediately freaked out by that picture of the massive wave, you start searching everywhere for one of these. . .

You obviously know you must get to higher ground, but there aren't very many roads leading up into the Coastal Range forests. You are relieved when you soon see. . .

Yes, I said SOON see. It's so weird, one minute you're in the zone. The next minute you've left the zone. I guess being in the zone all depends on how high up you are, but there are some places when I know these people have made a mistake, when some killer wave could come crashing in on me and I totally think I'm safe because I'm not in the zone.

Yes, my mind is warped. I know. I'm just sharing part of my warpedness with you. In all likelihood, I'm not going to die in a tornado, an earthquake, or a tsunami. So, if that's the case, why does it all bother me so much???