“The wind’s coming from the wrong direction!”
That was my thought on walking outside this morning into 40mph winds…from the east. Where I am, on a bluff looking westward at Lake Michigan, the wind is almost always blowing off the lake. From the West.
This, I learned, is a big problem. Trees that experience nonstop westerly breezes brace themselves against that wind. They are literally leaning into the wind, and able to withstand even the toughest gale-force battering from the west.
But when the wind comes from the east, trees are highly susceptible to lesser winds, because they have not braced themselves against them. They fall to the surprise easterly wind, not the familiar westerly.
The same is true of us, isn’t it? We brace ourselves against the challenges we face every day, to the point when even a massive workload won’t break us. But an unexpected challenge from a new direction can flatten us.