Baker: Lessons from a cherry tree

On Friday, July 3, my husband and I were in downtown Kent with family, awaiting the annual fireworks display. At about nine o’clock, the weather suddenly changed. The wind whipped up and dark clouds filled the sky. We grabbed our chairs and ran for the cars. As we scurried along, huge gusts of wind pushed hard against us. Just as we drove off, the rain began, pouring down in torrents.

When we got home a few minutes later, the car’s headlights revealed a totally different landscape than we had left an hour or so ago: a huge cherry tree at the edge of our property had fallen. Amazingly, it had not taken down the fence next to it–or our little barn, just beyond the fence. Somehow, the tree fell right between the two. It did tear our flagpole out of the earth; we could see the flags sticking out underneath the fallen branches. We were immediately filled with gratitude that so little damage had occurred.