Stories of Kindness from Around the World

Shelter From The Storm


--by mindyjourney, posted Aug 7, 2017

Our fishing/swimming excursion with visiting family to a nearby lake turned into a sheltering experience this afternoon.

It began with the day's forecast of no chance of rain in the Hills and turned into hail so heavy (thank goodness only pea-sized) that it looked like drifts of snow along the road.

When it first started to rain, we invited some families nearby to share the wooden shelter with us, where we had our stuff set up on the picnic tables. By the time it REALLY started to rain, with little rivulets cascading down the hill and across the shelter floor, we were pretty crammed in together.

Shivering under towels (temperature went from mid-80's to 49 quickly) we quickly became a little community, laughing and joking, finding out more about each other.

One family was from the Netherlands and after a year in the Boston area, had rented an RV and were traveling across the country in 4 weeks time, before having to return back home to the Netherlands.

So glad that I had tucked my Smiley RAOK purse with and was able to give them an origami Peace dove. Had a chat and wished them a safe journey on their travels and eventually back home.

This Irish Proverb kept running thru my thoughts as we were huddled together, "It is in the shelter of each other that people live."

So true. 


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Readers Comments

MadronaMan wrote: Love the opportunistic community! I always carry at least 5 or 6 tarps with me for camping in the pnw both for floors and roofs, because sometimes it rains here!
Rajni wrote: Thank god for this unexpected kindness opportunity. We never imagine your compassionate heart losing such opportunity. Weather forcaste can fail but not you! Thanks for this inspiring share.
Gyrocloudy wrote: Woow. Simply amazing! Making new friends under the cold rain! Maybe I will start not being so shy to talk to strangers :P
kiwicat wrote: Thats so kind and welcoming! Its a bit sad when our weather is better here and its winter! I hope your temperatures come back up tomorrow :-)
pyronik wrote: wow, so glad you had shelter & those people had you to share with
Alisamom wrote: Lol I've experienced that in CO once, in August, 15 minutes hail and they had to get out the snow plows to clear the roads. We were at a festival at the time and everyone huddled under tent pavilions. The hail kept pushing the roofs down and in every rent brooms and canes were handed around from side to side to keep everything from collapsing. A memorable experience of strangers coming together, making room, and keeping each other safe <3
DANCE wrote: :-)
Mish wrote: You bring comfort wherever you journey, twinner ❤️
kjoyw wrote: Really, even though big change in the weather, what a great opportunity for all kinds of new connections! Truly, it is in each other's shelter that we live. Lovely post!
leoladyc728 wrote: thanks for sharing the shelter. The degrees went down really quickly. We had rain here tonight.

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