We were overnighting in Southern Kentucky after I rendezvoused with Ryan at the Nashville airport earlier in the evening. I had flown in from Charleston where I had just completed a 5-city Leadership Caravan for the South Carolina Realtors across the Palmetto State and Ryan had driven up from Starkville after finishing up the fall semester of his sophomore year at Mississippi State.
We turned the lights out just before midnight. The warning system on our iPhones blared their alarms at 1:59 am. They were loud and unexpected and woke Ryan and me out of dead sleep. A tornado warning was in effect for the county where our hotel was. I looked out the window of our hotel room in Bowling Green, Kentucky to see what might be happening and Ryan asked me, “what’s it doing out there?”
“It’s totally calm. No rain and still as can be,” I said. “Let’s hope it stays that way and we can get a good night’s sleep before our early wake-up call and our drive home.”
We heard some huge thunderclaps, saw some flashes of lightning, and felt some strong winds shake the hotel a little bit later but nothing that was going to stop us from falling asleep. We never heard sirens from outside. My alarm woke me up at 6:45 am and I showered and got ready to drive the last 350 miles home to Ohio.
As Ryan was showering and getting dressed for the drive home, I checked my phone and had quite a few text messages.
“Are you okay?”
“You ok this morning?”
“Are you safe? I keep hearing of tornado damage near you?“
I looked out the window again and saw some puddles on the ground in the parking lot below but nothing at all looked amiss. No trees down or debris on the open lot across the street. There was one truck of workers parked outside the power station just East of the hotel, but they didn’t appear to be working frantically to restore power. Little did we know that a massive tornado had crisscrossed Southern Kentucky leaving a trail of death and devastation in its wake.
As we jumped on I-65 North, it was sobering to see trees down and roofs tore off buildings just one exit up the road. As we drove a little farther, maybe just 3-4 miles from our hotel, we started seeing apartment buildings and houses ripped apart. We noticed barns in pieces on the ground. Freeway signs had been ripped from their foundations and scattered on the shoulders of the road. Billboards were ripped in two and the trees were lying like matchsticks on the ground.
“You never know how close you are” has never been more true for me than that moment. Ryan and I both looked at each other and sighed. We felt gratitude and thanks for being safe now and tried not to think what might have been if we had stayed one more exit up the freeway.
It certainly gives one a healthy dose of perspective when something like that happens. It’ll also make you appreciate how much good you have in your life. Think about it; if you can be that close to something bad happening, you can also be “that close” to something good happening.
Maybe this week make one more phone call, send one more hand-written note or email, or knock on one more door. Follow up with one more past client or reach out to just one more prospect.
Build one more relationship, solve one more problem, and have a little more fun…and make sure you tell your friends and family that you love them.
You just never know how close you are.