BIG storm last night. I really need to go check to see if my basement has flooded again. I’ll do that next. The thunder and lightening were booming simultaneously, bright and loud. I started the night with one child in my bed. It wasn’t long ‘til we were joined by another and one wet, frazzled cat. My youngest never stirred. So it was a crowded bed for an hour in the early hours. I felt like breaking out into “Raindrops on Roses.”

I already have two baby replacement trees in my front yard from previous storms: one last year, and Isabelle the year before. The one last year we saw blow over. We love to sit on the front porch in the storm. The kids, mine and some neighborhood kids, had a fun time sawing on it before the chain saws arrived. No one even lost a finger.

My trees are Bradford Pears. They are an experimental hybrid, bred to be beautiful but not to produce fruit. They are beautiful, especially in the spring when our neighborhood is lined with their white blossoms. They don’t bear fruit, so there’s no messy clean-up or fertilizing necessary. One flaw in their manipulated creation is that they are brittle. They can’t support their own weight in a storm. They don’t bend well in the wind.

Beautiful things are not meant to last. They are fleeting moments. You have to enjoy them while they are in bloom before the winds blow too hard. What lasts longer are the natural, fruit-bearing, messy trees. They still have their moments of beauty, but they come with a mess and lots of work.

True for you?