On October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy slammed the Northeast. And like many folks, I won\u2019t ever forget it. More than one hundred people lost their lives. Thousands lost their homes. My Jersey Shore town was dealt a brutal blow and recovery is still a work in progress. But there\u2019s another reason I can\u2019t forget this storm. A moment, actually. One that irrevocably strengthened my faith.<\/p>\n
It was 5:00 am, one week after Sandy. \u201cMorning, babe,\u201d my husband, Chip mumbled, shutting off the alarm. \u201cGonna be a rough one.\u201d Chip\u2019s a police officer and he was gearing up for another 16-hour shift. The night before, a nor\u2019easter had dumped a foot of heavy, wet snow and caused even more destruction.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou get ready and I\u2019ll clean off your car,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
Outside sirens wailed. Transformers exploded, illuminating the dawn sky in flashes of bright blue and green. Branches and tree limbs crackled and snapped all around our acre lot.<\/p>\n
After I cleaned off Chip\u2019s car, I figured I\u2019d do mine too. I started at the front, then stepped around to clear the rear windshield. That\u2019s when I heard a voice: \u201cMove,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMove.\u201d The voice was calm. Insistent. It came from inside me, yet it wasn\u2019t my own.<\/p>\n
In my seven years at Guideposts I\u2019ve interviewed plenty of folks who\u2019ve heard and heeded an inner voice. I\u2019m strong in my faith, but I\u2019d never experienced it. Was this what they meant? Or was the stress of the storm getting to me? I kept brushing.<\/p>\n
\u201cMove.\u201d There it was again! Almost demanding this time.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m probably just overtired<\/em>, I thought, but it can\u2019t hurt to listen<\/em>. I opened the back door and threw the snowbrush on the back seat.<\/p>\n \u201cMOVE!\u201d This time the voice was urgent. I bolted! I only made it a few feet before I heard a deafening crack behind me. I dove into the snow. CRASH!<\/em><\/p>\n I turned around. A gargantuan, seven-foot tree limb, already weakened by Sandy, had grown heavy with snow and ice and finally snapped. It had fallen across the driveway\u2014with such force it split the asphalt.<\/p>\n Exactly where I\u2019d been standing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On October 29, 2012, Superstorm Sandy slammed the Northeast. And like many folks, I won\u2019t ever forget it. More than one hundred people lost their lives. Thousands lost their homes. My Jersey Shore town was dealt a brutal blow and recovery is still a work in progress. But there\u2019s another reason I can\u2019t forget this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":26474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[149],"tags":[156,51,169],"ppma_author":[1875],"class_list":["post-15552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-miracles","tag-death","tag-inspirational-stories","tag-winter"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n