I have been in a lot of scary situations before. But I have never experienced anything like what I experienced today. Once again Mother Earth amazes and terrifies me all at once.
The day started much like any other Tuesday does. I took Paul to work and continued on to my work to start the day. It was a nice cool August morning, the kind that remind you summer is winding down and fall is moving in slowly.
I was strangely calm and in a cheery mood considering Tuesdays are technically my Monday. My first massage when super well with a new client that is quickly becoming a regular. We had a lovely chat and he mentioned we are in the eye of a hurricane this weekend. Goody...I hate hurricanes. I have been in mostly tropical storms, and a couple of hurricane winds in Champaign, IL that was enough for me.
After my lunch break I was fully booked for the afternoon, so I was getting my treatment room just the way I like it and I went outside for a minute for a breath of fresh air. There was a nice breeze and the sun was out, and I remember something felt "odd" in the air. I brushed it off. This is Virginia you never know what to expect weather wise.
My first client of the afternoon was done and I moved onto my next one. I had gotten about ten minutes into the session. Suddenly I got this wave of nausea and almost felt like vertigo, that sense of sea sickness/dizziness. Then it passed and I heard this loud rumble. The walls are thin and we have various other stores around us and I thought maybe it was a garbage truck for one of them. Then it got louder and almost sounded like the wall to the next building was going to come down. I though "is that wind?" "It can't be a hurricane yet?!" I took a deep breath, my client didn't stir. I kept going all of the sudden I felt the floor tremble. I brushed it off until it started to move like I was on the Gravitron ride at the fair only I am not leaning against anything!
In that moment I thought "It's an earthquake!" My client started to sit up. I to this moment have no idea what came over me. I just calmly covered her up with the sheet and blanket (she was face down on the table) and laid my hands reassuringly on her back and told her to hang on it that we are going to be okay. The floor and walls started rattling and shaking. It flashed in my mind something about standing in door frames. I thought "no it will be over in a second." Mind you it seemed like it was an eternity at that point already. My plan was if it wasn't over in a second I was going to tell her to get up and get under the table while I stood in the door. Thankfully it stopped. Again I have no idea where this voice of reason and calm came from. I asked her if she was okay. Then told her to take a deep breath. Together we took a couple of deep breaths and then I told her I was going to make sure everyone in the rest of the clinic was okay. I carefully opened the door and saw a couple of other therapists and my manager and made sure we were all good. From there I proceeded to finish working on my client. Crazy, I know!
No one told me not to! I had no idea what protocol was for earthquakes! I have been inside a London Tube station during a bomb threat and had a better idea of how to handle that situation compared to this! My client mentioned she lived part of her life in Egypt and told me how she experienced an earthquake stronger than what just happened and in the middle of a sandstorm. (Which by the way was recorded to be a 5.8) Strangely that reassured me. My next thought was "Crap! Paul was probably trying to call me and my ringer is off!" The client's phone was going off I told her she better answer in case it was family and let them know she was okay. That gave me a chance to look at my phone. Yup, he called but I couldn't text out, the towers were blocked or something so he could send but I couldn't. We finally got connected and he got rocked pretty good at his office as well. They had some structural damage as well not in his area thankfully.
Funny everyone asks what is your first thought when that happened. My first thought was I was going to be okay. Then I worried about Paul and Lola going on without me if something happened. But I wasn't scared of what could have happened to me. Even though it felt like the ground was going to open up and swallow me whole.
When I got home about and hour and half later because believe it or not my last client still came. He was en route at the time of the quake and said it felt like he was in a boat on rocky seas while he was driving. I can only imagine. The whole time I kept getting waves of nausea and dizziness and a general sensation of feeling off my axis. Like something was knocked out of some energetic alignment. Everyone kept telling me it was too early for after shocks. I find that hard to believe. I know what I was feeling.
Paul was already home when I got there and poor Miss Lola Kitty was really skittish. My poor cat has been through the Bow River flooding our condo one year in Calgary and now an earthquake. She was staying low to the ground and you could see a fear in her eyes, that was totally different from the fear she gets when going to the vet. Everything in our apartment was fine. A few framed pictures shifted a bit, but other wise things were as we left them this morning. We were very fortunate. I scooped up my precious little feline and reassured her as much and you can reassure and animal that just got shaken up like she must have. Shortly after I got home and we were all in the same room she was back to her old self. Her people were just where she wanted them.
Our upstairs neighbor came home and we checked in with her and apparently she had quite a few things broken in her place. Once again I am reminded of how fortunate we are that we are still intact and we were all kept safe.
I called my grandmother who doesn't have internet but watches the new nightly. Plus I had heard on my drive home that this quake was felt in Toronto! So I knew she would be wondering what was going on. She had no idea. As a matter of fact she had just turned on her news station as the phone rang. I was happy I was able to beat the media for once.
Now that things have calmed down and I know my friends and family here are safe, I am reminded yet again just how powerful Mother Earth and her ways are. On that note I think we will be making sure we have emergency provisions on hand for this potential hurricane coming our way.
Peace and Love my readers!
No comments:
Post a Comment